THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

GIFT  OF 

J.  Lorenz  Sporer 


WORKS    OF    GEORGE    MOORE 

NEW  AND  REVISED  EDITION 
In   Uniform  Binding  Post  8vo,  Green  Cloth 

SPRING  DAYS 

CONFESSIONS  OF  A  YOUNG  MAN 

A  MUMMER'S  WIFE 

IMPRESSIONS  AND  OPINIONS 

MUSLIN 

CELIBATES 

ESTHER  WATERS 

LEWIS  SEYMOUR  AND  SOME  WOMEN 

Others  in  Preparation 


BRENTANO'S 


NEW    YORK 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 


BY 

GEORGE  MOORE 


NEW  YORK 

BRENTANO'S 

1917 


COPYRIOHT,    1917 
BY 

BRENTANO'S 


College 
Library. 


fR. 


A  DEDICATION  TO  ROBERT  ROSS 


IN  the  sunset  of  his  life  a  man  often  finds  himself  unable 
to  put  dates  even  upon  events  in  which  his  sympathies 
were,  and  perhaps  are  still,  engaged;  all  things  seem  to 
have  befallen  yesterday,  and  yet  it  cannot  be  less  than 
three  years  since  we  were  anxious  to  testify  to  our  be- 
lief in  the  kindness  and  justice  with  which  you  had  ful- 
filled your  double  duties  in  the  Morning  Post  towards 
us  and  the  proprietors  of  the  paper. 

A  committee  sprang  up  quickly,  and  a  letter  was  ad- 
dressed by  it  to  all  the  notable  workers  in  the  arts  and 
to  all  those  who  were  known  to  be  interested  in  the 
arts,  and  very  soon  a  considerable  sum  of  money  was 
collected;  but  when  the  committee  met  to  decide  what 
form  the  commemorative  gift  should  take,  a  perplexity 
arose,  many  being  inclined  towards  a  piece  of  plate.  It 
was  pointed  out  that  a  piece  of  plate  worth  eight  hun- 
dred pounds  would  prove  a  cumbersome  piece  of  fur- 
niture— a  white  elephant,  in  fact — in  the  small  house  or 
apartment  or  flat  in  which  a  critic  usually  lives.  The 
truth  of  this  could  not  be  gainsaid.  Other  suggestions 
were  forthcoming  for  your  benefit,  every  one  obtaining 
a  certain  amount  of  support,  but  none  commanding  a 
majority  of  votes;  and  the  perplexity  continued  till  it 
was  mooted  that  the  disposal  of  the  money  should  be 
left  to  your  option,  and  in  view  of  the  fact  that  you  had 


1164326 


viii        DEDICATION    TO    ROBERT    ROSS 

filled  the  post  of  art  critic  for  many  years,  you  de- 
cided to  found  a  Slade  scholarship.  It  seemed  to  you 
well  that  a  young  man  on  leaving  the  Slade  School 
should  be  provided  with  a  sum  of  money  sufficient  to 
furnish  a  studio,  and  some  seven  or  eight  hundred 
pounds  were  invested,  the  remainder  being  spent  on  a 
trinket  for  your  personal  wear — a  watch.  I  have  not 
forgotten  that  I  was  one  of  the  dissidents,  scholarships 
not  appealing  to  me,  but  lately  I  have  begun  to  see  that 
you  were  wise  in  the  disposal  of  the  money.  A  watch 
was  enough  for  remembrance,  and  since  I  caught  sight 
of  it  just  now,  the  pleasant  thoughts  it  has  evoked  con- 
sole me  for  your  departure:  after  bidding  you  good-bye 
on  the  doorstep,  I  return  to  my  fireside  to  chew  the  cud 
once  again  of  the  temperate  and  tolerant  articles  that  I 
used  to  read  years  ago  in  the  Morning  Post. 

You  see,  Ross,  I  was  critic  myself  for  some  years  on 
the  Speaker,  but  my  articles  were  often  bitter  and  ex- 
plosive; I  was  prone  to  polemics  and  lacked  the  finer 
sense  that  enabled  you  to  pass  over  works  with  which 
you  were  not  in  sympathy  without  wounding  the  painter. 
My  intention  was  often  to  wound  him  in  the  absurd 
hope  that  I  might  compel  him  to  do  better.  My  motto 
seems  to  have  been  '  Compel  them  to  come  in ' — words 
used  by  Jesus  in  one  of  his  parables,  and  relied  on  by 
ecclesiastics  as  a  justification  of  persecution,  and  by 
many  amongst  us  whose  names  I  will  not  pillory  here, 
for  I  have  chosen  that  these  pages  shall  be  about  you 
and  nothing  but  you.  If  I  speak  of  myself  in  a  for- 
gotten crusade,  it  is  to  place  you  in  your  true  light.  We 
recognized  your  critical  insight  and  your  literary  skill, 
but  it  was  not  for  these  qualities  that  we,  the  criticized, 
decided  to  present  you,  the  critic,  with  a  token  of  our 
gratitude;  nor  was  it  because  you  had  praised  our  works 
(a  great  number  of  the  subscribers  had  not  received 


DEDICATION    TO    ROBERT    ROSS          ix 

praise  from  you) :  we  were  moved  altogether,  I  think, 
by  the  consciousness  that  you  had  in  a  difficult  task 
proved  yourself  to  be  a  kindly  critic,  and  yet  a  just  one, 
and  it  was  for  these  qualities  that  you  received  an 
honour  that  is  unique,  I  think,  in  the  chronicles  of 
criticism. 


II 

Memory  pulls  me  up,  and  out  of  some  moments  of 
doubt,  the  suspicion  emerges  that  all  I  am  writing  here 
was  read  by  me  somewhere:  but  it  was  not  in  our  orig- 
inal declaration  of  faith,  for  I  never  saw  it,  not  hav- 
ing attended  the  presentation  of  the  testimonial.  Where, 
then?  In  the  newspapers  that  quoted  from  the  original 
document?  Written  out  by  whom?  By  Witt  or  by  Mac- 
Coll,  excellent  writers  both.  But  being  a  writer  myself, 
I  am  called  upon  to  do  my  own  writing.  .  .  .  News- 
papers are  transitory  things — a  good  reason  for  writing 
out  the  story  afresh;  and  there  is  still  another  reason 
for  writing  it  out — my  reasons  for  dedicating  this  book 
to  you.  We  must  have  reasons  always  or  else  pass  for 
unreasonable  beings,  and  a  better  reason  for  dedicating 
a  book  to  you  than  mine,  I  am  fain  to  believe,  will  never 
be  found  by  anybody  in  search  of  a  reason  for  his  ac- 
tions. My  name  is  among  the  signatories  to  the  docu- 
ment that  I  have  called  'our  declaration  of  faith';  and 
having  committed  myself  thus  fully  to  your  critical 
judgment,  it  seems  to  me  that  for  the  completion  of  the 
harmony  a  dedication  is  necessary.  A  fair  share  of  rea- 
sons I  am  setting  forth  for  this  act  of  mine,  every  one 
of  them  valid,  and  the  most  valid  of  all  is  my  reason 
for  choosing  this  book,  A  Mummer's  Wife,  to  dedicate 
to  you,  your  own  commendation  of  it  the  other  night 
when  you  said  to  me  that  no  book  of  mine  in  your  opinion 


x  DEDICATION    TO    ROBERT    ROSS 

was  more  likely  to  '  live ' !  To  live  for  five-and-twenty 
years  is  as  long  an  immortality  as  anyone  should  set  his 
heart  on;  for  who  would  wish  to  be  chattered  about  by 
the  people  that  will  live  in  these  islands  three  hundred 
years  hence?  We  should  not  understand  them  nor  they 
us.  Avaunt,  therefore,  all  legendary  immortalities,  and 
let  us  be  content,  Ross,  to  be  remembered  by  our  friends, 
and,  perhaps,  to  have  our  names  passed  on  by  disciples 
to  another  generation !  A  fair  and  natural  immortality 
this  is;  let  us  share  it  together.  Our  bark  lies  in  the 
harbor:  you  tell  me  the  spars  are  sound,  and  the  seams 
have  been  caulked;  the  bark,  you  say,  is  seaworthy  and 
will  outlive  any  of  the  little  storms  that  she  may  meet 
on  the  voyage — a  better  craft  is  not  to  be  found  in  my 
little  fleet.  You  said  yesterevening  across  the  hearth- 
rug, '  Esther  Waters  speaks  out  of  a  deeper  appreciation 
of  life' ;  but  you  added :  '  There  is  a  youthful  imagina- 
tion and  a  young  man's  exuberance  on  coming  into  his 
own  for  the  first  time  in  A  Mummer's  Wife,  and  this  is 

a  quality '     No  doubt  it  is  a  quality,  Ross ;  but  what 

kind  of  quality?  You  did  not  finish  your  sentence,  or 
I  have  forgotten  it.  Let  me  finish  it  for  you — '  that  out- 
weighs all  other  qualities.'  But  does  it?  I  am  inter- 
preting you  badly.  You  would  not  commit  yourself  to 
so  crude  an  opinion,  and  I  am  prepared  to  believe  that 
I  did  not  catch  the  words  as  they  fell  from  your  lips. 
All  I  can  recall  for  certain  of  the  pleasant  moment  when 
you  were  considering  which  of  my  works  you  liked  the 
best  are  stray  words  that  may  be  arranged  here  into  a 
sentence  which,  though  it  does  not  represent  your  critical 
judgments  accurately,  may  be  accepted  by  you.  You 
said  your  thoughts  went  more  frequently  to  A  Mummer's 
Wife  than  to  Esther  Waters;  and  I  am  almost  sure 
something  was  said  about  the  earlier  book  being  a  more 
spontaneous  issue  of  the  imagination,  and  that  the  wan- 


DEDICATION    TO    EGBERT    ROSS         xi 

dering  life  of  the  mummers  gives  an  old-world,  adven- 
turous air  to  the  book,  reminding  you  of  The  Golden  Ass 
— a  book  I  read  last  year,  and  found  in  it  so  many  re- 
membrances of  myself  that  I  fell  to  thinking  it  was  a 
book  I  might  have  written  had  I  lived  two  thousand 
years  ago.  Who  can  say  he  has  not  lived  before,  and  is 
it  not  as  important  to  believe  we  lived  herebefore  as  it 
is  to  believe  we  are  going  to  live  hereafter?  If  I  had 
lived  herebefore,  Jupiter  knows  what  I  should  have 
written,  but  it  would  not  have  been  Esther  Waters:  more 
likely  a  book  like  A  Mummer's  Wife — a  band  of  jug- 
glers and  acrobats  travelling  from  town  to  town.  As  I 
write  these  lines  an  antique  story  rises  up  in  my  mind, 
a  recollection  of  one  of  my  lost  works  or  an  instantane- 
ous reading  of  Apuleius  into  A  Mummer's  Wife — 
which  ? 

G.  M. 


A  MUMMER'S  WIFE 


IN  default  of  a  screen,  a  gown  and  a  red  petticoat  had 
been  thrown  over  a  clothes-horse,  and  these  shaded  the 
.  glare  of  the  lamp  from  the  eyes  of  the  sick  man.  In 
the  pale  obscurity  of  the  room,  his  bearded  cheeks  could 
be  seen  buried  in  a  heap  of  tossed  pillows.  By  his 
bedside  sat  a  young  woman.  As  she  dozed,  her  face 
drooped  until  her  features  were  hidden,  and  the  lamp- 
light made  the  curious  curves  of  a  beautiful  ear  look 
like  a  piece  of  illuminated  porcelain.  Her  hands  lay 
upon  her  lap,  her  needlework  slipped  from  them;  and 
as  it  fell  to  the  ground  she  awoke. 

She  pressed  her  hands  against  her  forehead  and  made 
an  effort  to  rouse  herself.  As  she  did  so,  her  face  con- 
tracted with  an  expression  of  disgust,  and  she  remem- 
bered the  ether.  The  soft,  vaporous  odour  drifted 
towards  her  from  a  small  table  strewn  with  medicine 
bottles,  and  taking  care  to  hold  the  cork  tightly  in  her 
fingers  she  squeezed  it  into  the  bottle. 

At  that  moment  the  clock  struck  eleven  and  the  clear 
tones  of  its  bell  broke  the  silence  sharply;  the  patient 
moaned  as  if  in  reply,  and  his  thin,  hairy  arms  stirred 
feverishly  on  the  wide  patchwork  counterpane.  She 
took  them  in  her  hands  and  covered  them  over;  she 
tried  to  arrange  the  pillows  more  comfortably,  but  as 
she  did  so  he  turned  and  tossed  impatiently,  and,  fear- 

1 


2  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

ing  to  disturb  him,  she  put  back  the  handkerchief  she 
had  taken  from  the  pillow  to  wipe  the  sweat  from  his 
brow,  and  regaining  her  chair,  with  a  weary  movement 
she  picked  up  the  cloth  that  had  fallen  from  her  knees 
and  slowly  continued  her  work. 

It  was  a  piece  of  patchwork  like  the  counterpane  on 
the  bed;  the  squares  of  a  chessboard  had  been  taken 
as  a  design,  and,  selecting  a  fragment  of  stuff,  she 
trimmed  it  into  the  required  shape  and  sewed  it  into  its 
allotted  corner. 

Nothing  was  now  heard  but  the  methodical  click  of 
her  needle  as  it  struck  the  head  of  her  thimble,  and 
then  the  long  swish  of  the  thread  as  she  drew  it  through 
the  cloth.  The  lamp  at  her  elbow  burned  steadily,  and 
the  glare  glanced  along  her  arm  as  she  raised  it  with 
the  large  movement  of  sewing. 

Her  hair  was  blue  wherever  the  light  touched  it,  and 
it  encircled  the  white  prominent  temple  like  a  piece  of 
rich  black  velvet;  a  dark  shadow  defined  the  delicate 
nose,  and  hinted  at  thin  indecision  of  lips,  whilst  a 
broad  touch  of  white  marked  the  weak  but  not  unbeau- 
tiful  chin. 

On  the  corner  of  the  table  lay  a  book,  a  well-worn 
volume  in  a  faded  red  paper  cover.  It  was  a  novel  she 
used  to  read  with  delight  when  she  was  a  girl,  but  it 
had  somehow  failed  to  interest  her,  and  after  a  few 
pages  she  had  laid  it  aside,  preferring  for  distraction 
her  accustomed  sewing.  She  was  now  well  awake,  and, 
as  she  worked,  her  thoughts  turned  on  things  concern- 
ing the  daily  routine  of  her  life.  She  thought  of  the 
time  when  her  husband  would  be  well;  of  the  pillow 
she  was  making;  of  how  nice  it  would  look  in  the  green 
armchair;  of  the  much  greater  likelihood  of  letting  their 
rooms  if  they  were  better  furnished ;  of  their  new  lodger ; 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  3 

and  of  the  probability  of  a  quarrel  between  him  and 
her  mother-in-law,  Mrs.  Ede. 

For  more  than  a  week  past  the  new  lodger  had 
formed  the  staple  subject  of  conversation  in  this  house- 
hold. Mrs.  Ede,  Kate's  mother-in-law,  was  loud  in  her 
protestations  that  the  harbouring  of  an  actor  could  not 
but  be  attended  by  bad  luck.  Kate  felt  a  little  uneasy; 
her  puritanism  was  of  a  less  marked  kind;  perhaps  at 
first  she  had  felt  inclined  to  agree  with  her  mother-in- 
law,  but  her  husband  had  shown  himself  so  stubborn, 
and  had  so  persistently  declared  that  he  was  not  going 
to  keep  his  rooms  empty  any  longer,  that  for  peace' 
sake  she  was  fain  to  side  with  him.  The  question  arose 
in  a  very  unexpected  way.  During  the  whole  winter 
they  were  unfortunate  with  their  rooms,  though  they 
made  many  attempts  to  get  lodgers;  they  even  adver- 
tised. Some  few  people  asked  to  see  the  rooms;  but 
they  merely  made  an  offer.  One  day  a  man  who  came 
into  the  shop  to  buy  some  paper  collars  asked  Kate  if 
she  had  any  apartments  to  let.  She  answered  yes,  and 
they  went  upstairs.  After  a  cursory  inspection  he  told 
her  that  he  was  the  agent  in  advance  to  a  travelling 
opera  company,  and  that  if  she  liked  he  would  recom- 
mend her  rooms  to  the  stage  manager,  a  particular 
friend  of  his.  The  proposition  was  somewhat  startling, 
but,  not  liking  to  say  no,  she  proposed  to  refer  the  mat- 
ter to  her  husband. 

At  that  particular  moment  Ede  happened  to  be  en- 
gaged in  a  violent  dispute  with  his  mother,  and  so  angry 
was  he  that  when  Mrs.  Ede  raised  her  hands  to  protest 
against  the  introduction  of  an  actor  into  the  household, 
he  straightway  told  her  that  '  if  she  didn't  like  it  she 
might  do  the  other  thing.'  Nothing  more  was  said  at 
the  time;  the  old  lady  retired  in  indignation,  and  Mr. 
Lennox  was  written  to.  Kate  sympathized  alternately 


4  A   MUMMER'S   WIFE 

with  both  sides.  Mrs.  Ede  was  sturdy  in  defence  of 
her  principles;  Ede  was  petulant  and  abusive;  and  be- 
tween the  two  Kate  was  blown  about  like  a  feather  in 
a  storm.  Daily  the  argument  waxed  warmer,  until  one 
night,  in  the  middle  of  a  scene  characterized  by  much 
Biblical  quotation,  Ede  declared  he  could  stand  it  no 
longer,  and  rushed  out  of  the  house.  In  vain  the  women 
tried  to  stop  him,  knowing  well  what  the  consequences 
would  be.  A  draught,  a  slight  exposure,  sufficed  to  give 
him  a  cold,  and  with  him  a  cold  always  ended  in  an 
asthmatic  attack.  And  these  were  often  so  violent  as 
to  lay  him  up  for  weeks  at  a  time.  When  he  returned, 
his  temper  grown  cooler  under  the  influence  of  the  night 
air,  he  was  coughing,  and  the  next  night  found  him 
breathless.  His  anger  had  at  first  vented  itself  against 
his  mother,  whom  he  refused  to  see,  and  thus  the  whole 
labour  of  nursing  him  was  thrown  on  Kate.  She  didn't 
grumble  at  this,  but  it  was  terrible  to  have  to  listen  to 
him. 

It  was  Mr.  Lennox,  and  nothing  but  Mr.  Lennox. 
All  the  pauses  in  the  suffocation  were  utilized  to  speak 
on  this  important  question,  and  even  now  Kate,  who 
had  not  yet  perceived  that  the  short  respite  which  get- 
ting rid  of  the  phlegm  had  given  him  was  coming  to  an 
end,  expected  him  to  say  something  concerning  the  still 
unknown  person.  But  Ede  did  not  speak,  and,  to  put 
herself  as  it  were  out  of  suspense,  she  referred  to  some 
previous  conversation: 

'  I'm  sure  you're  right;  the  only  people  in  the  town 
who  let  their  rooms  are  those  who  have  a  theatrical  con- 
nection.' 

'  Oh,  I  don't  care,  I'm  going  to  have  a  bad  night/ 
said  Mr.  Ede,  who  now  thought  only  of  how  he  should 
get  his  next  breath. 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  5 

'  But  you  seemed  to  be  getting  better/  she  replied 
hurriedly. 

'No!  I  feel  it  coming  on — I'm  suffocating.  Have 
you  got  the  ether?' 

Kate  did  not  answer,  but  made  a  rapid  movement 
towards  the  table,  and  snatching  the  bottle  she  un- 
corked it.  The  sickly  odour  quietly  spread  like  oil 
over  the  close  atmosphere  of  the  room,  but,  mastering 
her  repugnance,  she  held  it  to  him,  and  in  the  hope  of 
obtaining  relief  he  inhaled  it  greedily.  But  the  remedy 
proved  of  no  avail,  and  he  pushed  the  bottle  away. 

'  Oh,  these  headaches !  My  head  is  splitting,'  he  said, 
after  a  deep  inspiration  which  seemed  as  if  it  would  cost 
him  his  life.  '  Nothing  seems  to  do  me  any  good.  Have 
you  got  any  cigarettes?' 

'  I'm  sorry,  they  haven't  arrived  yet.  I  wrote 
for  them/  she  replied,  hesitating;  'but  don't  you 
think ?' 

He  shook  his  head,  and,  resenting  Kate's  assiduities, 
with  trembling  fingers  he  unfastened  the  shawl  she  had 
placed  on  his  shoulders,  and  then,  planting  his  elbows 
on  his  knees,  with  a  fixed  head  and  elevated  shoulders, 
he  gave  himself  up  to  the  struggle  of  taking  breath. 
...  At  that  moment  she  would  have  laid  down  her  life 
to  save  him  from  the  least  of  his  pains,  but  she  could 
only  sit  by  him,  watching  the  struggle,  knowing  that 
nothing  could  be  done  to  relieve  him.  She  had  seen 
the  same  scene  repeated  a  hundred  times  before,  but  it 
never  seemed  to  lose  any  of  its  terror.  In  the  first 
month  of  their  marriage  she  had  been  frightened  by 
one  of  these  asthmatic  attacks.  It  had  come  on  in  the 
middle  of  the  night,  and  she  remembered  well  how  she 
had  prayed  to  God  that  it  should  not  be  her  fate  to  see 
her  husband  die  before  her  eyes.  She  knew  now  that 
death  was  not  to  be  apprehended — the  paroxysm  would 


6  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

wear  itself  out — but  she  knew  also  of  the  horrors  that 
would  have  to  be  endured  before  the  time  of  relief  came. 
She  could  count  them  upon  her  fingers — she  could  see 
it  all  as  in  a  vision — a  nightmare  that  would  drag  out 
its  long  changes  until  the  dawn  began  to  break;  she  an- 
ticipated the  hours  of  the  night. 

'Air!  Air!  I'm  suff-o-cating !'  he  sobbed  out  with 
a  desperate  effort. 

Kate  ran  to  the  window  and  threw  it  open.  The  par- 
oxysm had  reached  its  height,  and,  resting  his  elbows 
well  on  his  knees,  he  gasped  many  times,  but  before  the 
inspiration  was  complete  his  strength  failed  him.  No 
want  but  that  of  breath  could  have  forced  him  to  try 
again;  and  the  second  effort  was  even  more  terrible 
than  the  first.  A  great  upheaval,  a  great  wrenching 
and  rocking  seemed  to  be  going  on  within  him;  the 
veins  on  his  forehead  were  distended,  the  muscles  of  his 
chest  laboured,  and  it  seemed  as  if  every  minute  were 
going  to  be  his  last.  But  with  a  supreme  effort  he  man- 
aged to  catch  breath,  and  then  there  was  a  moment  of 
respite,  and  Kate  could  see  that  he  was  thinking  of  the 
next  struggle,  for  he  breathed  avariciously,  letting  the 
air  that  had  cost  him  so  much  agony  pass  slowly 
through  his  lips.  To  breathe  again  he  would  have  to 
get  on  to  his  feet,  which  he  did,  and  so  engrossed  was  he 
in  the  labour  of  breathing  that  he  pushed  the  paraffin 
lamp  roughly;  it  would  have  fallen  had  Kate  not  been 
there  to  catch  it.  She  besought  of  him  to  say  what  he 
wanted,  but  he  made  no  reply,  and  continued  to  drag 
himself  from  one  piece  of  furniture  to  another,  till  at 
last,  grasping  the  back  of  a  chair,  he  breathed  by  jerks, 
each  inspiration  being  accompanied  by  a  violent  spas- 
modic wrench,  violent  enough  to  break  open  his  chest. 
She  watched,  expecting  every  moment  to  see  him  roll 
over,  a  corpse,  but  knowing  from  past  experiences  that 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  7 

he  would  recover  somehow.  His  recoveries  always 
seemed  to  her  like  miracles,  and  she  watched  the  long 
pallid  face  crushed  under  a  shock  of  dark  matted  hair, 
a  dirty  nightdress,  a  pair  of  thin  legs;  but  for  the  mo- 
ment the  grandeur  of  human  suffering  covered  him,  lift- 
ing him  beyond  the  pale  of  loving  or  loathing,  investing 
and  clothing  him  in  the  pity  of  tragic  things.  The 
room,  too,  seemed  transfigured.  The  bare  wide  floor, 
the  gaunt  bed,  the  poor  walls  plastered  with  religious 
prints  cut  from  journals,  even  the  ordinary  furniture  of 
every-day  use — the  little  washhandstand  with  the  com- 
mon delf  ewer,  the  chest  of  drawers  that  might  have 
been  bought  for  thirty  shillings — lost  their  coarseness; 
their  triviality  disappeared,  until  nothing  was  seen  or 
felt  but  this  one  suffering  man. 

The  minutes  slipped  like  the  iron  teeth  of  a  saw  over 
Kate's  sensibilities.  A  hundred  times  she  had  run  over 
in  her  mind  the  list  of  remedies  she  had  seen  him  use. 
They  were  few  in  number,  and  none  of  any  real  service 
except  the  cigarettes  which  she  had  not.  She  asked  him 
to  allow  her  to  try  iodine,  but  he  could  not  or  would 
not  make  her  any  answer.  It  was  cruel  to  see  him 
struggling,  but  he  resisted  assistance,  and  watching  like 
one  in  a  dream,  frightened  at  her  own  powerlessness  to 
save  or  avert,  Kate  remained  crouching  by  the  fireplace 
without  strength  to  think  or  act,  until  she  was  suddenly 
awakened  by  seeing  him  relax  his  hold  and  slip  heavily 
on  the  floor;  and  it  was  only  by  putting  forth  her  whole 
strength  she  could  get  him  into  a  sitting  position;  when 
she  attempted  to  place  him  in  a  chair  he  slipped  through 
her  arms.  There  was,  therefore,  nothing  to  do  but  to 
shriek  for  help,  and  hope  to  awaken  her  mother-in-law. 
The  echoes  rang  through  the  house,  and  as  they  died 
away,  appalled,  she  listened  to  the  silence. 

At  length  it  grew  clear  that  Mrs.  Ede  could  not  be 
2 


8  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

awakened,  and  Kate  saw  that  she  would  have  to  trust 
to  herself  alone,  and  after  two  or  three  failures  she 
applied  herself  to  winning  him  back  to  consciousness. 
It  was  necessary  to  do  so  before  attempting  to  move 
him  again,  and,  sprinkling  his  face  with  water,  she  per- 
suaded him  to  open  his  eyes,  and  after  one  little  stare 
he  slipped  back  into  the  nothingness  he  had  come  out 
of;  and  this  was  repeated  several  times,  Kate  redoubling 
her  efforts  until  at  last  she  succeeded  in  placing  him 
in  a  chair.  He  sat  there,  still  striving  and  struggling 
with  his  breath,  unable  to  move,  and  soaked  with  sweat, 
but  getting  better  every  minute.  The  worst  of  the  at- 
tack was  now  over;  she  buttoned  his  nightshirt  across 
his  panting  chest  and  covered  his  shoulders  with  his  red 
shawl  once  more,  and  with  a  sentiment  of  real  tender- 
ness she  took  his  hand  in  hers.  She  looked  at  him,  feel- 
ing her  heart  grow  larger. 

He  was  her  husband;  he  had  suffered  terribly,  and 
was  now  getting  better;  and  she  was  his  wife,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  attend  him.  She  only  wished  he  would 
allow  her  to  love  him  a  little  better;  but  against  her 
will  facts  pierced  through  this  luminous  mist  of  senti- 
ment, and  she  could  not  help  remembering  how  petulant 
he  was  with  her,  how  utterly  all  her  wishes  were  dis- 
regarded. '  What  a  pity  he's  not  a  little  different !'  she 
thought;  but  when  she  looked  at  him  and  saw  how  he 
suffered,  all  other  thoughts  were  once  more  drowned 
and  swept  away.  She  forgot  how  he  often  rendered  her 
life  miserable,  wellnigh  unbearable,  by  small  vices, 
faults  that  defy  definition,  unending  selfishness  and  un- 
ceasing irritability.  But  now  all  dissatisfaction  and  bit- 
ternesses were  again  merged  into  a  sentiment  that  was 
akin  to  love;  and  in  this  time  of  physical  degradation 
he  possessed  her  perhaps  more  truly,  more  perfectly, 
than  even  in  his  best  moments  of  health. 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  9 

But  her  life  was  one  of  work,  not  of  musing,  and 
there  was  plenty  for  her  to  attend  to.  Ralph  would 
certainly  not  be  able  to  leave  his  chair  for  some  time 
yet;  she  had  wrapped  him  up  comfortably  in  a  blanket, 
she  could  do  no  more,  and  whilst  he  was  recovering  it 
would  be  as  well  to  tidy  up  the  room  a  bit.  He  would 
never  be  able  to  sleep  in  a  bed  that  he  had  been  lying 
in  all  day;  she  had  better  make  the  bed  at  once,  for  he 
generally  got  a  little  ease  towards  morning,  particularly 
after  a  bad  attack.  So,  hoping  that  the  present  occa- 
sion would  not  prove  an  exception,  Kate  set  to  work  to 
make  the  bed.  She  resolved  to  do  this  thoroughly,  and 
turning  the  mattress  over,  she  shook  it  with  all  her 
force.  She  did  the  same  with  the  pillows,  and  fearing 
that  there  might  be  a  few  crumbs  sticking  to  the  sheets, 
she  shook  them  out  several  times,  and  when  the  last 
crease  had  been  carefully  smoothed  away  she  went  back 
to  her  husband  and  insisted  on  being  allowed  to  paint 
his  back  with  iodine,  although  he  did  not  believe  in  the 
remedy.  On  his  saying  he  was  thirsty,  she  went  creep- 
ing down  the  narrow  stairs  to  the  kitchen,  hunted  for 
matches  in  the  dark,  lighted  a  spirit  lamp  and  made 
him  a  hot  drink,  which  he  drank  without  thanking  her. 
She  fell  to  thinking  of  his  ingratitude,  and  then  of  the 
discomfort  of  the  asthma.  How  could  she  expect  him 
to  think  of  her  when  he  was  thinking  of  his  breath? 
All  the  same,  on  these  words  her  waking  thoughts  must 
•have  passed  into  dream  thoughts.  She  was  still  watch- 
ing by  his  bedside,  waiting  to  succour  him  whenever  he 
should  ask  for  help,  yet  she  must  have  been  asleep.  She 
did  not  know  how  long  she  slept,  but  it  could  not  have 
been  for  long;  and  there  was  no  reason  for  his  peevish- 
ness, for  she  had  not  left  him. 

'  I'm  sorry,  Ralph,  but  I  could  not  help  it,  I  was  so 
very  tired.  What  can  I  do  for  you,  dear?' 


10  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'Do  for  me?'  he  said — 'why,  shut  the  window.  I 
might  have  died  for  all  you  would  have  known  or  cared.' 

She  walked  across  the  room  and  shut  the  window,  but 
as  she  came  back  to  her  place  she  said,  '  I  don't  know 
why  you  speak  to  me  like  that,  Ralph.' 

'  Prop  me  up;  if  I  lie  so  low  I  shall  get  bad  again. 
If  you  had  a  touch  of  this  asthma  you'd  know  what  it 
is  to  lie  alone  for  hours.' 

'  For  hours,  Ralph  ?'  Kate  repeated,  and  she  looked 
at  the  clock  and  saw  that  she  had  not  been  asleep  for 
more  than  half  an  hour.  Without  contradicting  him — 
for  of  what  use  would  that  be,  only  to  make  matters 
worse? — she  arranged  the  pillows  and  settled  the  blan- 
kets about  him,  and  thinking  it  would  be  advisable  to 
say  something,  she  congratulated  him  on  seeming  so 
much  better. 

'  Better !  If  I'm  better,  it's  no  thanks  to  you,'  he 
said.  '  You  must  have  been  mad  to  leave  the  window 
open  so  long.' 

'  You  wanted  it  open ;  you  know  very  well  that  when 
you're  very  bad  like  that  you  must  have  change  of  air. 
The  room  was  so  close.' 

'  Yes,  but  that  is  no  reason  for  leaving  it  open  half 
an  hour.' 

'  I  offered  to  shut  it,  and  you  wouldn't  let  me.' 

'  I  dare  say  you're  sick  of  nursing  me,  and  would  like 
to  get  rid  of  me.  The  window  wasn't  a  bad  dodge.' 

Kate  remained  silent,  being  too  indignant  for  the  mo- 
ment to  think  of  replying;  but  it  was  evident  from  her 
manner  that  she  would  not  be  able  to  contain  herself 
much  longer.  He  had  hurt  her  to  the  quick,  and  her 
brown  eyes  swam  with  tears.  His  head  lay  back  upon 
the  built-up  pillows,  he  fumed  slowly,  trying  to  find  new 
matter  for  reproach,  and  breath  wherewith  to  explain 
it.  At  last  he  thought  of  the  cigarettes. 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  11 

'  Even  supposing  that  you  did  not  remember  how  long 
you  left  the  window  open,  I  cannot  understand  how  you 
forgot  to  send  for  the  cigarettes.  You  know  well  enough 
that  smoking-  is  the  only  thing  that  relieves  me  when 
I'm  in  this  state.  I  think  it  was  most  unfeeling — yes, 
most  unfeeling!'  Having  said  so  much,  he  leaned  for- 
ward to  get  breath,  and  coughed. 

'  You'd  better  lie  still,  Ralph;  you'll  only  make  your- 
self bad  again.  Now  that  you  feel  a  little  easier  you 
should  try  to  go  to  sleep.' 

So  far  she  got  without  betraying  any  emotion,  but  as 
she  continued  to  advise  him  her  voice  began  to  tremble, 
her  presence  of  mind  to  forsake  her,  and  she  burst  into 
a  flood  of  tears. 

'  I  don't  know  how  you  can  treat  me  as  you  do,'  she 
said,  sobbing  hysterically.  '  I  do  everything — I  give  up 
my  night's  rest  to  you,  I  work  hard  all  day  for  you, 
and  in  return  I  only  receive  hard  words.  Oh,  it's  no 
use,'  she  said ;  '  I  can  bear  it  no  longer ;  you'll  have  to 
get  someone  else  to  mind  you.' 

This  outburst  of  passion  came  suddenly  upon  Mr. 
Ede,  and  for  some  time  he  was  at  a  loss  how  to  proceed. 
At  last,  feeling  a  little  sorry,  he  resolved  to  make  it  up, 
and  putting  out  his  hand  to  her,  he  said: 

'  Now,  don't  cry,  Kate;  perhaps  I  was  wrong  in 
speaking  so  crossly.  I  didn't  mean  all  I  said — it's  this 
horrid  asthma.' 

'  Oh,  I  can  bear  anything  but  to  be  told  I  neglect  you 
— and  when  I  stop  up  watching  you  three  nights  run- 
ning  ' 

These  little  quarrels  were  of  constant  occurrence. 
Irritable  by  nature,  and  rendered  doubly  so  by  the  char- 
acter of  his  complaint,  the  invalid  at  times  found  it  im- 
possible to  restrain  his  ill-humour;  but  he  was  not  en- 
tirely bad;  he  inherited  a  touch  of  kindheartedness  from 


12  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

his  mother,  and  being  now  moved  by  Kate's  tears,  he 
said: 

'  That's  quite  true,  and  I'm  sorry  for  what  I  said;  you 
are  a  good  little  nurse.  I  won't  scold  you  again.  Make 
it  up.' 

Kate  found  it  hard  to  forget  merely  because  Ralph 
desired  it,  and  for  some  time  she  refused  to  listen  to 
his  expostulations,  and  walked  about  the  room  crying, 
but  her  anger  could  not  long  resist  the  dead  weight  of 
sleep  that  was  oppressing  her,  and  eventually  she  came 
and  sat  down  in  her  own  place  by  him.  The  next  step 
to  reconciliation  was  more  easy.  Kate  was  not  vindic- 
tive, although  quick-tempered,  and  at  last,  amid  some 
hysterical  sobbing,  peace  was  restored.  Ralph  began  to 
speak  of  his  asthma  again,  telling  how  he  had  fancied 
he  was  going  to  die,  and  when  she  expressed  her ,  fear 
and  regret  he  hastened  to  assure  her  that  no  one  ever 
died  of  asthma,  that  a  man  might  live  fifty,  sixty,  or 
seventy  years,  suffering  all  the  while  from  the  com- 
plaint; and  he  rambled  on  until  words  and  ideas  together 
failed  him,  and  he  fell  asleep.  With  a  sigh  of  relief 
Kate  rose  to  her  feet,  and  seeing  that  he  was  settled  for 
the  night,  she  turned  to  leave  him,  and  passed  into  her 
room  with  a  slow  and  dragging  movement ;  but  the  place 
had  a  look  so  cold  and  unrestful  that  it  pierced  through 
even  her  sense  of  weariness,  and  she  stood  urging  her 
tired  brains  to  think  of  what  she  should  do.  At  last, 
remembering  that  she  could  get  a  pillow  from  the  room 
they  reserved  for  letting,  she  turned  to  go. 

Facing  their  room,  and  only  divided  by  the  very  nar- 
rowest of  passages,  was  the  stranger's  apartment. 

Both  doors  were  approached  by  a  couple  of  steps, 
which  so  reduced  the  space  that  were  two  people  to  meet 
on  the  landing,  one  would  have  to  give  way  to  the  other. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ede  found  this  proximity  to  their  lodger, 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  13 

when  they  had  one,  somewhat  inconvenient,  but,  as  he 
said,  'One  doesn't  get  ten  shillings  a  week  for  nothing.' 
Kate  lingered  a  moment  on  the  threshold,  and  then, 
with  the  hand  in  which  she  held  the  novel  she  had  been 
reading,  she  picked  up  her  skirt  and  stepped  across  the 
way. 


II 


AT  first  she  could  not  determine  who  was  passing 
through  the  twilight  of  the  room,  but  as  the  blinds  were 
suddenly  drawn  up  and  a  flood  of  sunlight  poured 
across  the  bed,  she  fell  back  amid  the  pillows,  having 
recognized  her  mother-in-law  in  a  painful  moment  of 
semi-blindness.  The  old  woman  carried  a  slop-pail, 
which  she  nearly  dropped,  so  surprised  was  she  to  find 
Kate  in  the  stranger's  room. 

'  But  how  did  you  get  here?'  she  said  hastily. 

'  I  had  to  give  Ralph  my  pillow,  and  when  he  went 
to  sleep  I  came  to  fetch  one  out  of  the  bedroom  here; 
and  then  I  thought  I  would  be  more  comfortable  here 
— I  was  too  tired  to  go  back  again — I  don't  know  how 
it  was — what  does  it  matter?' 

Kate,  who  was  stupefied  with  sleep,  had  answered  so 
crossly  that  Mrs.  Ede  did  not  speak  for  some  time;  at 
last,  at  the  end  of  a  long  silence,  she  said: 

'  Then  he  had  a  very  bad  night?' 

'  Dreadful !'  returned  Kate.  '  I  never  was  so  fright- 
ened in  my  life.' 

'And  how  did  the  fit  come  on?'  asked  Mrs.  Ede. 

'  Oh,  I  can't  tell  you  now,'  said  Kate.  'I'm  so  tired. 
I'm  aching  all  over.' 

'  Well,  then,  I'll  bring  you  up  your  breakfast.  You 
do  look  tired.  It  will  do  you  good  to  remain  in  bed.' 

14 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  15 

'Bring  me  up  my  breakfast!  Then,  what  time  is  it?' 
said  Kate,  sitting  up  in  bed  with  a  start. 

'What  does  it  matter  what  the  time  is?  If  you're 
tired,  lie  still;  I'll  see  that  everything  is  right.' 

'  But  I've  promised  Mrs.  Barnes  her  dress  by  to- 
morrow night.  Oh,  my  goodness!  I  shall  never  get  it 
done !  Do  tell  me  what  time  it  is.' 

'  Well,  it's  just  nine,'  the  old  woman  answered  apolo- 
getically ;  '  but  Mrs.  Barnes  will  have  to  wait ;  you  can't 
kill  yourself.  It's  a  great  shame  of  Ralph  to  have  you 
sitting  up  when  I  could  look  after  him  just  as  well,  and 
all  because  of  the  mummer.' 

'  Oh,  don't,  mother,'  said  Kate,  who  knew  that  Mrs. 
Ede  could  rate  play-actors  for  a  good  half-hour  without 
feeling  the  time  passing,  and  taking  her  mother-in-law's 
hands  in  hers,  she  looked  earnestly  in  her  face,  saying: 

'  You  know,  mother,  I  have  a  hard  time  of  it,  and  I 
try  to  bear  up  as  well  as  I  can.  You're  the  only  one 
I've  to  help  me;  don't  turn  against  me.  Ralph  has  set 
his  mind  on  having  the  rooms  let,  and  the  mummer,  as 
you  call  him,  is  coming  here  to-day;  it's  all  settled. 
Promise  me  you'll  do  nothing  to  unsettle  it,  and  that 
while  Mr.  Lennox  is  here  you'll  try  to  make  him  com- 
fortable. I've  my  dressmaking  to  attend  to,  and  can't 
be  always  after  him.  Will  you  do  this  thing  for  me?' 
and  after  a  moment  or  so  of  indecision  Mrs.  Ede  said: 

'  I  don't  believe  money  made  out  of  such  people  can 
bring  luck,  but  since  you  both  wish  it,  I  suppose  I  must 
give  way.  But  you  won't  be  able  to  say  I  didn't  warn 
you.' 

'  Yes,  yes,  but  since  we  can't  prevent  his  coming,  will 
you  promise  that  whilst  he's  here  you'll  attend  to  him 
just  as  you  did  to  the  other  gentleman?' 

'  I  shall  say  nothing  to  him,  and  if  he  doesn't  make 
the  house  a  disgrace,  I  shall  be  well  satisfied.' 


16  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  How  do  you  mean  a  disgrace  ?' 

'  Don't  you  know,  dear,  that  actors  have  always  a  lot 
of  women  after  them,  and  I  for  one  am  not  going  to 
attend  on  wenches  like  them.  If  I  had  my  way  I'd  whip 
such  people  until  I  slashed  all  the  wickedness  out  of 
them.' 

'  But  he  won't  bring  any  women  here ;  we  won't  allow 
it/  said  Kate,  a  little  shocked,  and  she  strove  to  think 
how  they  should  put  a  stop  to  such  behaviour.  'If  Mr. 
Lennox  doesn't  conduct  himself  properly ' 

'  Of  course  I  shall  try  to  do  my  duty,  and  if  Mr. 
Lennox  respects  himself  I  shall  try  to  respect  him.' 

She  spoke  these  words  hesitatingly,  but  the  admission 
that  she  possibly  might  respect  Mr.  Lennox  satisfied 
Kate,  and  not  wishing  to  press  the  matter  further,  she 
said,  suddenly  referring  to  their  previous  conversation: 

'  But  didn't  you  say  that  it  was  nine  o'clock?' 

'  It's  more  than  nine  now.' 

'  Oh,  Lord,  oh,  Lord !  how  late  I  am !  I  suppose  the 
two  little  girls  are  here?' 

'  They  just  came  in  as  I  was  going  upstairs;  I've  set 
them  to  work.' 

'  I  wish  you'd  get  the  tea  ready,  and  you  might  make 
some  buttered  toast;  Ralph  would  like  some,  and  so 
should  I,  for  the  matter  of  that.' 

Then  Ralph's  voice  was  heard  calling,  and  seeing 
what  was  wanted,  she  hastened  to  his  assistance. 

'  Where  were  you  last  night  ?'  he  asked  her. 

'  I  slept  in  the  stranger's  room ;  I  thought  you'd  not 
require  me,  and  I  was  more  comfortable  there.  The  bed 
in  the  back  room  is  all  ups  and  downs.' 

He  was  breathing  heavily  in  a  way  that  made  her  fear 
he  was  going  to  have  another  attack. 

'  Is  mother  in  a  great  rage  because  I  won't  let  her 
in?'  he  said  presently. 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  17 

'  She's  very  much  cut  up  about  it,  dear ;  you  know  she 
loves  you '  better  than  anyone  in  the  world.  You'd  do 
well  to  make  it  up  with  her.' 

'  Well,  perhaps  I  was  wrong/  he  said  after  a  time,  and 
with  good  humour,  '  but  she  annoys  me.  She  will  in- 
terfere in  everything;  as  if  I  hadn't  a  right  to  let  my 
rooms  to  whom  I  please.  She  pays  for  all  she  has  here, 
but  I'd  much  sooner  she  left  us  than  be  lorded  over  in 
that  way.' 

'  She  doesn't  want  to  lord  it  over  you,  dear.  It's  all 
arranged.  She  promised  me  just  now  she'd  say  nothing 
more  about  it,  and  that  she'd  look  after  Mr.  Lennox  like 
any  other  lodger.' 

On  hearing  that  his  mother  was  willing  to  submit  to 
his  will,  the  invalid  smiled  and  expressed  regret  that  the 
presence  of  an  extra  person  in  the  house,  especially  an 
actor,  would  give  his  wife  and  mother  more  work  to  do. 

'  But  I  shall  soon  be  well,'  he  said,  '  and  I  dare  say 
downstairs  looking  after  the  shop  in  a  week.' 

Kate  protested  against  such  imprudence,  and  then  sug- 
gested she  should  go  and  see  after  his  breakfast.  Ralph 
proffered  no  objection,  and  bidding  him  good-bye  for 
the  present,  she  went  downstairs.  Annie  was  helping 
Mrs.  Ede  to  make  the  toast  in  the  front  kitchen;  Lizzie 
stood  at  the  table  buttering  it,  but  as  soon  as  Kate  en- 
tered they  returned  to  their  sewing,  for  it  was  against 
Kate's  theories  that  the  apprentices  should  assist  in  the 
household  work. 

'  Dear  mother,'  she  began,  but  desisted,  and  when  all 
was  ready  Mrs.  Ede,  remembering  she  had  to  make  peace 
with  her  son,  seized  the  tray  and  went  upstairs.  And 
the  moment  she  was  gone  Kate  seated  herself  wearily  on 
the  red,  calico-covered  sofa.  Like  an  elongated  arm- 
chair, it  looked  quaint,  neat,  and  dumpty,  pushed  up 
against  the  wall  between  the  black  fireplace  on  the  right 


18  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

and  the  little  window  shaded  with  the  muslin  blinds,  un- 
der which  a  pot  of  greenstuff  bloomed  freshly.  She  lay 
back  thinking  vaguely,  her  cup  of  hot  tea  uppermost  in 
her  mind,  hoping  that  Mrs.  Ede  would  not  keep  her 
waiting  long;  and  then,  as  her  thoughts  detached  them- 
selves, she  remembered  the  actor  whom  they  expected 
that  afternoon.  The  annoyances  which  he  had  uncon- 
sciously caused  her  had  linked  him  to  her  in  a  curious 
way,  and  all  her  prejudices  vanished  in  the  sensation  of 
nearness  that  each  succeeding  hour  magnified,  and  she 
wondered  who  this  being  was  who  had  brought  so  much 
trouble  into  her  life  even  before  she  had  seen  him.  As 
the  word  '  trouble '  went  through  her  mind  she  paused, 
arrested  by  a  passing  feeling  of  sentimentality;  but  it 
explained  nothing,  defined  nothing,  only  touched  her  as 
a  breeze  does  a  flower,  and  floated  away.  The  dreamy 
warmth  of  the  fire  absorbed  her  more  direct  feelings,  and 
for  some  moments  she  dozed  in  a  haze  of  dim  sensuous- 
ness  and  emotive  numbness.  As  in  a  dusky  glass  she  saw 
herself  a  tender,  loving,  but  unhappy  woman;  by  her 
side  were  her  querulous  husband  and  her  kindly  minded 
mother-in-law,  and  then  there  was  a  phantom  she  could 
not  determine,  and  behind  it  something  into  which  she 
could  not  see.  Was  it  a  distant  country?  Was  it  a 
scene  of  revelry?  Impossible  to  say,  for  whenever  she 
attempted  to  find  definite  shapes  in  the  glowing  colours 
they  vanished  in  a  blurred  confusion. 

But  amid  these  fleeting  visions  there  was  one  shape 
that  particularly  interested  her,  and  she  pursued  it  tena- 
ciously, until  in  a  desperate  effort  to  define  its  features 
she  awoke  with  a  start  and  spoke  more  crossly  than  she 
intended  to  the  little  girls,  who  had  pulled  aside  the  cur- 
tain and  were  intently  examining  the  huge  theatrical 
poster  that  adorned  the  corner  of  the  lane.  But  as  she 
scolded  she  could  not  help  smiling;  for  she  saw  how  her 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  19 

dream  had  been  made  out  of  the  red  and  blue  dresses  of 
the  picture. 

The  arrival  of  each  new  company  in  the  town  was  an- 
nounced pictorially  on  this  corner  wall,  and,  in  the  course 
of  the  year,  many  of  the  vicissitudes  to  which  human  life 
is  liable  received  illustration  upon  it.  Wrecks  at  sea, 
robberies  on  the  highways,  prisoners  perishing  in  dun- 
geons, green  lanes  and  lovers,  babies,  glowing  hearths, 
and  heroic  young  husbands.  The  opera  companies  ex- 
hibited the  less  serious  sides  of  life — strangely  dressed 
people  and  gallants  kissing  their  hands  to  ladies  standing 
on  balconies. 

The  little  girls  examined  these  pictures  and  commented 
on  them;  and  on  Saturdays  it  was  a  matter  of  the  keen- 
est speculation  what  the  following  week  would  bring 
them.  Lizzie  preferred  exciting  scenes  of  murder  and 
arson,  while  Annie  was  moved  more  by  leavetakings  and 
declarations  of  unalterable  affection.  These  differences 
of  taste  often  gave  rise  to  little  bickerings,  and  last  week 
there  had  been  much  prophesying  as  to  whether  the  tragic 
or  the  sentimental  element  would  prove  next  week's  at- 
traction. Lizzie  had  voted  for  robbers  and  mountains, 
Annie  for  lovers  and  a  nice  cottage.  And,  remembering 
their  little  dispute,  Kate  said: 

'  Well,  dears,  is  it  a  robber  or  a  sweetheart  ?  ' 

'  We're  not  sure,'  exclaimed  both  children  in  a  disap- 
pointed tone  of  voice;  'we  can't  make  the  picture  out.' 
Then  Lizzie,  who  cared  little  for  uncertainties,  said: 

'  It  isn't  a  nice  picture  at  all ;  it  is  all  mixed  up.' 

'  Not  a  nice  picture  at  all,  and  all  mixed  up  ?  '  said 
Kate,  smiling,  yet  interested  in  the  conversation.  '  And 
all  mixed  up;  how  is  that?  I  must  see  if  I  can  make  it 
out  myself/ 

The  huge  poster  contained  some  figures  nearly  life- 
size.  It  showed  a  young  girl  in  a  bridal  dress  and  wreath 


20  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

struggling  between  two  police  agents,  who  were  arresting 
her  in  a  marketplace  of  old  time,  in  a  strangely  costumed 
crowd,  which  was  clamouring  violently.  The  poor  bride- 
groom was  being  held  back  by  his  friends;  a  handsome 
young  man  in  knee-breeches  and  a  cocked  hat  watched 
the  proceedings  cynically  in  the  right-hand  corner,  whilst 
on  the  left  a  big  fat  man  frantically  endeavoured  to  re- 
cover his  wig,  that  had  been  lost  in  the  melee.  The  ad- 
vertisement was  headed,  '  Morton  and  Cox's  Operatic 
Company,'  and  concluded  with  the  announcement  that 
Madame  An  got  would  be  played  at  the  Queen's  Theatre. 
After  a  few  moments  spent  in  examining  the  picture 
Kate  said  it  must  have  something  to  do  with  France. 

'  I  know  what  it  means,'  cried  Lizzie ;  '  you  see  that 
old  chap  on  the  right?  He's  the  rich  man  who  has  sent 
the  two  policemen  to  carry  the  bride  to  his  castle,  and 
it's  the  young  fellow  in  the  corner  who  has  betrayed 
them.' 

The  ingenuity  of  this  explanation  took  Kate  and  Annie 
so  much  by  surprise  that  for  the  moment  they  could  not 
attempt  to  controvert  it,  and  remained  silent,  whilst  Liz- 
zie looked  at  them  triumphantly.  The  more  they  exam- 
ined the  picture  the  more  clear  did  it  appear  that  Lizzie 
was  right.  At  the  end  of  a  long  pause  Kate  said: 

'  Anyhow,  we  shall  soon  know,  for  one  of  the  actors  of 
the  company  is  coming  here  to  lodge,  and  we'll  ask  him.' 

'  A  real  actor  coming  here  to  lodge  ?  '  exclaimed  Annie. 
'  Oh,  how  nice  that  will  be !  And  will  he  take  us  to  see 
the  play  ?  ' 

'  How  silly  of  you,  Annie ! '  said  Lizzie,  who,  proud  of 
her  successful  explanation  of  the  poster,  was  a  little  in- 
clined to  think  she  knew  all  about  actors.  '  How  can  he 
take  us  to  the  play?  Isn't  he  going  to  act  it  himself? 
But  do  tell  me,  Mrs.  Ede — is  he  the  one  in  the  cocked 
hat?' 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  21 

'  I  hope  he  isn't  the  fat  man  who  has  lost  his  wig/ 
Annie  murmured  under  her  breath. 

'  I  don't  know  which  of  those  gentlemen  is  coming 
here.  For  all  I  know  it  may  be  the  policeman/  Kate 
added  maliciously. 

'  Don't  say  that,  Mrs.  Ede ! '  Annie  exclaimed. 

Kate  smiled  at  the  children's  earnestness,  and,  wish- 
ing to  keep  up  the  joke,  said: 

'  You  know,  my  dear,  they  are  only  sham  policemen, 
and  I  dare  say  are  very  nice  gentlemen  in  reality.' 

Annie  and  Lizzie  hung  down  their  heads ;  it  was  evi- 
dent they  had  no  sympathies  with  policemen,  not  even 
with  sham  ones. 

'  But  if  it  isn't  a  policeman,  who  would  you  like  it  to 
be,  Lizzie  ?  '  said  Kate. 

'  Oh,  the  man  in  the  cocked  hat,'  replied  Lizzie  with- 
out hesitation. 

'  And  you,  Annie  ?  ' 

Annie  looked  puzzled,  and  after  a  moment  said  with  a 
slight  whimper: 

'  Lizzie  always  takes  what  I  want — I  was  just  go- 
ing  ' 

'  Oh,  yes,  miss,  we  know  all  about  that,'  returned  Liz- 
zie derisively.  '  Annie  never  can  choose  for  herself ;  she 
always  tries  to  imitate  me.  She'll  have  the  man  who's 
lost  his  wig!  Oh,  yes,  yes!  Isn't  it  so,  Mrs.  Ede? 
Isn't  Annie  going  to  marry  the  man  who's  lost  his  wig  ?  ' 

Tears  trembled  in  Annie's  eyes,  but  as  she  happened 
at  that  moment  to  catch  sight  of  the  young  man  in  white, 
she  declared  triumphantly  that  she  would  choose  him. 

'  Well  done,  Annie ! '  said  Kate,  laughing  as  she  patted 
the  child's  curls,  but  her  eyes  fell  on  the  neglected  apron, 
and  seeing  how  crookedly  it  was  being  hemmed,  she  said: 

'  Oh,  my  dear,  this  is  very  bad ;  you  must  go  back, 


22  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

undo  all  you  have  done  this  morning,  and  get  it  quite 
straight.' 

She  undid  some  three  or  four  inches  of  the  sewing,  and 
then  showed  the  child  how  the  hem  was  to  be  turned  in, 
and  while  she  did  so  a  smile  hovered  round  the  corners 
of  her  thin  lips,  for  she  was  thinking  of  the  new  lodger, 
asking  herself  which  man  in  the  picture  was  coming  to 
lodge  in  her  house. 

Mrs.  Ede  returned,  talking  angrily,  but  Kate  could 
only  catch  the  words  '  waiting '  and  '  breakfast  cold ' 
and  'sorry.'  At  last,  out  of  a  confusion  of  words  a  re- 
proof broke  from  her  mother-in-law  for  not  having  roused 
her. 

'  I  called  and  called/  said  Kate,  '  but  nothing  would 
have  awakened  you.' 

'  You  should  have  knocked  at  my  door,'  Mrs.  Ede  an- 
swered, and  after  speaking  about  open  house  and  late 
hours  she  asked  Kate  suddenly  what  was  going  to  be 
done  about  the  latchkey. 

'  I  suppose  he  will  have  to  have  his  latchkey,'  Kate 
answered. 

'  I  shall  not  close  my  eyes,'  Mrs.  Ede  returned,  '  until 
I  hear  him  come  into  the  house.  He  won't  be  bringing 
with  him  any  of  the  women  from  the  theatre/ 

Kate  assured  her  that  she  would  make  this  part  of  the 
bargain,  and  somewhat  softened,  Mrs.  Ede  spoke  of  the 
danger  of  bad  company,  and  trusted  that  having  an  actor 
in  the  house  would  not  be  a  reason  for  going  to  the 
theatre  and  falling  into  idle  habits. 

'  One  would  have  thought  that  we  heard  enough  of 
that  theatre  from  Miss  Hender/  she  interjected,  and 
then  lapsed  into  silence. 

Miss  Hender,  Kate's  assistant,  was  one  of  Mrs.  Ede's 
particular  dislikes.  Of  her  moral  character  Mrs.  Ede 
had  the  gravest  doubts;  for  what  could  be  expected,  she 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  23 

often  muttered,  of  a  person  who  turned  up  her  nose  when 
she  was  asked  to  stay  and  attend  evening  prayers,  and 
who  kept  company  with  a  stage  carpenter? 

Mrs.  Ede  did  not  cease  talking  of  Hender  till  the  girl 
herself  came  in,  with  many  apologies  for  being  an  hour 
behind  her  time,  and  saying  that  she  really  could  not 
help  it;  her  sister  had  been  very  ill,  and  she  had  been 
obliged  to  sit  up  with  her  all  night.  Mrs.  Ede  smiled 
at  this  explanation,  and  withdrew,  leaving  Kate  in  doubt 
as  to  the  truth  of  the  excuse  put  forward  by  her  assist- 
ant; but  remembering  that  Mrs.  Barnes's  dress  had  been 
promised  for  Tuesday  morning,  she  said : 

'  Come,  we're  wasting  all  the  morning;  we  must  get 
on  with  Mrs.  Barnes's  dress,'  and  a  stout,  buxom,  car- 
roty-haired girl  of  twenty  followed  Kate  upstairs,  think- 
ing of  the  money  she  might  earn  and  of  how  she  and  the 
stage  carpenter  might  spend  it  together.  She  was  always 
full  of  information  concerning  the  big  red  house  in 
Queen  Street.  She  was  sure  that  the  hours  in  the  work- 
room would  not  seem  half  so  long  if  Kate  would  wake  up 
a  bit,  go  to  the  play,  and  chat  about  what  was  going  on 
in  the  town.  How  anyone  could  live  with  that  horrid 
old  woman  always  hanging  about,  with  her  religion  and 
salvation,  was  beyond  her.  She  hadn't  time  for  such 
things,  and  as  for  Bill,  he  said  it  was  all  '  tommy-rot.' 

Hender  was  an  excellent  workwoman — ^although  a  lazy 
girl,  and,  seeing  from  Kate's  manner  that  the  time  had 
not  come  for  conversation,  applied  herself  diligently  to 
her  business.  Placing  the  two  side-seams  and  the  back 
under  the  needle,  she  gave  the  wheel  a  turn,  and  rapidly 
the  little  steel  needle  darted  up  and  down  into  the 
glistening  silk,  as  Miss  Render's  thick  hands  pushed  it 
forward.  The  work  was  too  delicate  to  admit  of  any  dis- 
traction, so  for  some  time  nothing  was  heard  but  the 
clinking  rattle  of  the  machine  and  the  '  swishing '  of  the 
3 


24  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

silk  as  Kate  drew  it  across  the  table  and  snipped  it  with 
the  scissors  which  hung  from  her  waist. 

But  at  the  end  of  about  half  an  hour  the  work  came 
to  a  pause.  Hender  had  finished  sewing  up  the  bodice, 
had  tacked  on  the  facings,  and  Kate  had  cut  out  the  skirt 
and  basted  it  together.  The  time  had  come  for  exchang- 
ing a  few  words,  and  lifting  her  head  from  her  work,  she 
asked  her  assistant  if  she  could  remain  that  evening  and 
do  a  little  overtime.  Hender  said  she  was  very  sorry, 
but  it  was  the  first  night  of  the  new  opera  company ;  she 
had  passes  for  the  pit,  and  had  promised  to  take  a  friend 
with  her.  She  would,  therefore,  have  to  hurry  away  a 
little  before  six,  so  as  to  have  her  tea  and  be  dressed  in 
time. 

'  Well,  I  don't  know  what  I  shall  do,'  said  Kate  sor- 
rowfully. '  As  for  myself,  I  simply  couldn't  pass  another 
night  out  of  bed.  You  know  I  was  up  looking  after  my 
husband  all  night.  Attending  a  sick  man,  and  one  as 
cross  as  Mr.  Ede,  is  not  very  nice,  I  can  assure  you.' 

Hender  congratulated  herself  inwardly  that  Bill  was 
never  likely  to  want  much  attendance. 

'  I  think  you'd  better  tell  Mrs.  Barnes  that  she  can't 
expect  the  dress;  it  will  be  impossible  to  get  it  done  in 
the  time.  I'd  be  delighted  to  help  you,  but  I  couldn't 
disappoint  my  little  friend.  Besides,  you've  Mr.  Lennox 
coming  here  to-day  .  .  .  you  can't  get  the  dress  done  by 
to-morrow  night ! ' 

Hender  had  been  waiting  for  a  long  time  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  lead  up  to  Mr.  Lennox. 

'  Oh,  dear  me ! '  said  Kate,  '  I'd  forgotten  him,  and 
he'll  be  coming  this  afternoon,  and  may  want  some  din- 
ner, and  I'll  have  to  help  mother.' 

'  They  always  have  dinner  in  the  afternoon,'  said  Miss 
Hender,  with  a  feeling  of  pride  at  being  able  to  speak 
authoritatively  on  the  ways  and  habits  of  actors. 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  25 

'  Do  they  ?  '  replied  Kate  reflectively ;  and  then,  sud- 
denly remembering  her  promise  to  the  little  girls,  she 
said: 

'  But  do  you  know  what  part  he  takes  in  the  play  ?  ' 

Render  always  looked  pleased  when  questioned  about 
the  theatre,  but  all  the  stage  carpenter  had  been  able  to 
tell  her  about  the  company  was  that  it  was  one  of  the 
best  travelling ;  that  Frank  Bret,  the  tenor,  was  supposed 
to  have  a  wonderful  voice ;  that  the  amount  of  presents  he 
received  in  each  town  from  ladies  in  the  upper  ranks  of 
society  would  furnish  a  small  shop — '  It's  said  that  they'd 
sell  the  chemises  off  their  backs  for  him.'  The  stage  car- 
penter had  also  informed  her  that  Joe  Mortimer's  per- 
formance in  the  Cloches  was  extraordinary;  he  never 
failed  to  bring  down  the  house  in  his  big  scene ;  and  Lucy 
Leslie  was  the  best  Clairette  going. 

And  now  that  they  were  going  to  have  an  actor  lodging 
in  their  house,  Kate  felt  a  certain  interest  in  hearing 
what  such  people  were  like;  and  while  Miss  Render  gos- 
siped about  all  she  had  heard  Kate  remembered  that  her 
question  relating  to  Mr.  Lennox  remained  unanswered. 

'  But  you've  not  told  me  what  part  Mr.  Lennox  plays. 
Perhaps  he's  the  man  in  white  who  is  being  dragged  away 
from  his  bride?  I've  been  examining  the  big  picture; 
the  little  girls  were  so  curious  to  know  what  it  meant.' 

'  Yes,  he  may  play  that  part ;  it  is  called  Pom-Pom 
Pouct — I  can't  pronounce  it  right;  it's  French.  But  in 
any  case  you'll  find  him  fine.  All  theatre  people  are. 
The  other  day  I  went  behind  to  talk  to  Bill,  and  Mr. 
Rickett  stopped  to  speak  to  me  as  he  was  running  to 
make  a  change.' 

'What's  that?'  asked  Kate. 

'  Making  a  change  ?     Dressing  in  a  hurry.' 

'  I  hope  you  won't  get  into  trouble ;  stopping  out  so 


26  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

late  is  very  dangerous  for  a  young  girl.  And  I  suppose 
you  walk  up  Piccadilly  with  him  after  the  play?' 

'  Sometimes  he  takes  me  out  for  a  drink,'  Hender  re- 
plied, anxious  to  avoid  a  discussion  of  the  subject,  but 
at  the  same  time  tempted  to  make  a  little  boast  of  her 
independence.  '  But  you  must  come  to  see  Madame  An- 
got;  I  hear  it  is  going  to  be  beautifully  put  on,  and  Mr. 
Lennox  is  sure  to  give  you  a  ticket/ 

'  I  dare  say  I  should  like  it  very  much;  I  don't  have 
much  amusement.' 

'  Indeed  you  don't,  and  what  do  you  get  for  it  ?  I 
don't  see  that  Mr.  Ede  is  so  kind  to  you  for  all  the 
minding  and  nursing  you  do;  and  old  Mrs.  Ede  may 
repeat  all  day  long  that  she's  a  Christian  woman,  and 
what  else  she  likes,  but  it  doesn't  make  her  anything 
less  disagreeable.  I  wouldn't  live  in  a  house  with  a 
mother-in-law — and  such  a  mother-in-law ! ' 

'  You  and  Mrs.  Ede  never  hit  it  off,  but  I  don't  know 
what  I  should  do  without  her;  she's  the  only  friend  I've 
got.' 

'  Half  your  time  you're  shut  up  in  a  sick-room,  and 
even  when  he  is  well  he's  always  blowing  and  wheezing; 
not  the  man  that  would  suit  me.' 

'  Ralph  can't  help  being  cross  sometimes,'  said  Kate, 
and  she  fell  to  thinking  of  the  fatigue  of  last  night's 
watching.  She  felt  it  still  in  her  bones,  and  her  eyes 
ached.  As  she  considered  the  hardships  of  her  life,  her 
manner  grew  more  abandoned. 

'  If  you'll  let  me  have  the  skirt,  ma'am,  I'll  stitch 
it  up.' 

Kate  handed  her  the  silk  wearily,  and  was  about  to 
speak  when  Mrs.  Ede  entered. 

'  Mr.  Lennox  is  downstairs,'  she  said  stiffly.  '  I  don't 
know  what  you'll  think  of  him.  I'm  a  Christian  woman 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  27 

and  I  don't  want  to  misjudge  anyone,  but  he  looks  to  me 
like  a  person  of  very  loose  ways.' 

Kate  flushed  a  little  with  surprise,  and  after  a  moment 
she  said: 

'  I  suppose  I'd  better  go  down  and  see  him.  But  per- 
haps he  won't  like  the  rooms,  after  all.  What  shall  I 
say  to  him  ?  ' 

'  Indeed,  I  can't  tell  you;  I've  the  dinner  to  attend  to.' 

'  But,'  said  Kate,  getting  frightened,  '  you  promised 
me  not  say  any  more  on  this  matter.' 

'  Oh,  I  say  nothing.  I'm  not  mistress  here.  I  told 
you  that  I  would  not  interfere  with  Mr.  Lennox;  no 
more  will  I.  Why  should  I  ?  What  right  have  I  ?  But 
I  may  warn  you,  and  I  have  warned  you.  I've  said  my 
say,  and  I'll  abide  by  it.' 

These  hard  words  only  tended  to  confuse  Kate;  all 
her  old  doubts  returned  to  her,  and  she  remained  irreso- 
lute. Hender,  with  an  expression  of  contempt  on  her 
coarse  face,  watched  a  moment  and  then  returned  to  her 
sewing.  As  she  did  so  Kate  moved  towards  the  door. 
She  waited  on  the  threshold,  but  seeing  that  her  mother- 
in-law  had  turned  her  back,  her  courage  returned  to  her 
and  she  went  downstairs.  When  she  caught  sight  of 
Mr.  Lennox  she  shrank  back  frightened,  for  he  was  a 
man  of  about  thirty  years  of  age,  with  bronzed  face,  and 
a  shock  of  frizzly  hair,  and  had  it  not  been  for  his  clear 
blue  eyes  he  might  have  passed  for  an  Italian. 

Leaning  his  large  back  against  the  counter,  he  ex- 
amined a  tray  of  ornaments  in  black  jet.  Kate  thought 
he  was  handsome.  He  wore  a  large  soft  hat,  which  he 
politely  lifted  from  his  head  when  she  entered.  The  at- 
tention embarrassed  her,  and  somewhat  awkwardly  she 
interrupted  him  to  ask  if  he  would  like  to  see  the  rooms. 
The  suddenness  of  the  question  seemed  to  surprise  him, 
and  he  began  talking  of  their  common  acquaintance,  the 


28  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

agent  in  advance,  and  of  the  difficulty  in  getting  lodgings 
in  the  town.  As  he  spoke  he  stared  at  her,  and  he  ap- 
peared interested  in  the  shop. 

It  was  a  very  tiny  corner,  and,  like  a  Samson,  Mr. 
Lennox  looked  as  if  he  would  only  have  to  extend  his 
arms  to  pull  the  whole  place  down  upon  his  shoulders. 
From  the  front  window  round  to  the  kitchen  door  ran  a 
mahogany  counter;  behind  it,  there  were  lines  of  card- 
board boxes  built  up  to  the  ceiling;  the  lower  rows  were 
broken  and  dusty,  and  spread  upon  wires  were  coarse 
shirts  and  a  couple  of  pairs  of  stays  in  pink  and  white. 
The  windows  were  filled  with  babies'  frocks,  hoods,  and 
many  pairs  of  little  woollen  shoes. 

After  a  few  remarks  from  Mr.  Lennox  the  conversa- 
tion came  to  a  pause,  and  Kate  asked  him  again  if  he 
would  like  to  see  the  rooms.  He  said  he  would  be  de- 
lighted, and  she  lifted  the  flap  and  let  him  pass  into 
the  house.  On  the  right  of  the  kitchen  door  there  was  a 
small  passage,  and  at  the  end  of  it  the  staircase  began; 
the  first  few  steps  turned  spirally,  but  after  that  it  as- 
cended like  a  huge  canister  or  burrow  to  the  first  landing. 

They  passed  Mrs.  Ede  gazing  scornfully  from  behind 
the  door  of  the  workroom,  but  Mr.  Lennox  did  not  seem 
to  notice  her,  and  continued  to  talk  affably  of  the  diffi- 
culty of  finding  lodgings  in  the  town. 

Even  the  shabby  gentility  of  the  room,  which  his  pres- 
ence made  her  realize  more  vividly  than  ever,  did  not 
appear  to  strike  him.  He  examined  with  interest  the 
patchwork  cloth  that  covered  the  round  table,  looked 
complacently  at  the  little  green  sofa  with  the  two  chairs 
to  match,  and  said  that  he  thought  he  would  be  com- 
fortable. But  when  Kate  noticed  how  dusty  was  the 
pale  yellow  wallpaper,  with  its  watery  roses,  she  could 
not  help  feeling  ashamed,  and  she  wondered  how  so  fine  a 
gentleman  as  he  could  be  so  easily  satisfied.  Then,  pluck- 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  29 

ing  up  courage,  she  showed  him  the  little  mahogany 
chiffonier  which  stood  next  the  door,  and  told  him  that 
it  was  there  she  would  keep  whatever  he  might  order 
in  the  way  of  drinks.  Mr.  Lennox  walked  nearer  to  the 
small  looking-glass  engarlanded  with  green  paper  cut 
into  fringes,  twirled  a  slight  moustache  many  shades 
lighter  than  his  hair,  and  admired  his  white  teeth. 

The  inspection  of  the  drawing-room  being  over,  they 
went  up  the  second  portion  of  the  canister-like  stair- 
case, and  after  a  turn  and  a  stoop  arrived  at  the  bed- 
room. 

'  I'm  sorry  you  should  see  the  room  like  this/  Kate 
said.  '  I  thought  that  my  mother-in-law  had  got  the 
room  ready  for  you.  I  was  obliged  to  sleep  here  last 
night;  my  husband ' 

'  I  assure  you  I  take  no  objection  to  the  fact  of  your 
having  slept  here/  he  replied  gallantly. 

Kate  blushed,  and  an  awkward  silence  followed. 

As  Mr.  Lennox  looked  round  an  expression  of  dis- 
satisfaction passed  over  his  face.  It  was  a  much  poorer 
place  than  the  drawing-room.  Religion  and  poverty  went 
there  hand-in-hand.  A  rickety  iron  bedstead  covered 
with  another  patchwork  quilt  occupied  the  centre  of  the 
room,  and  there  was  a  small  chest  of  drawers  in  white 
wood  placed  near  the  fireplace — the  smallest  and  narrow- 
est in  the  world.  Upon  the  black  painted  chimney-piece 
a  large  red  apple  made  a  spot  of  colour.  The  carpet  was 
in  rags,  and  the  lace  blinds  were  torn,  and  hung  like  fish- 
nets. Mr.  Lennox  apparently  was  not  satisfied,  but  when 
his  eyes  fell  upon  Kate  it  was  clear  that  he  thought  that 
so  pretty  a  woman  might  prove  a  compensation.  But  the 
pious  exhortations  hanging  on  the  walls  seemed  to  cause 
him  a  certain  uneasiness.  Above  the  washstand  there 
were  two  cards  bearing  the  inscriptions,  '  Thou  art  my 


30  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

hope,'  '  Thou  art  my  will ' ;  and  these  declarations  of  faith 
were  written  within  a  painted  garland  of  lilies  and  roses. 

'  I  see  that  you're  religious.' 

'  I'm  afraid  not  so  much  as  I  should  be,  sir.' 

'  Well,  I  don't  know  so  much  about  that ;  the  place  is 
covered  with  Bible  texts.' 

'  Those  were  put  there  by  my  mother-in-law ;  she  is 
very  good.' 

'  Oh,  ah/  said  Mr.  Lennox.,  apparently  much  relieved 
by  the.  explanation.  '  Old  people  are  very  pious,  gener- 
ally, aren't  they?  But  this  patchwork  quilt  is  yours,  I 
suppose  ?' 

'  Yes,  sir;  I  made  it  myself/  said  Kate,  blushing. 

He  made  several  attempts  at  conversation,  but  she 
did  not  respond,  her  whole  mind  being  held  up  by  the 
thought:  '  Is  he  going  to  take  the  rooms,  I  wonder?'  At 
last  he  said: 

'  I  like  these  apartments  very  well;  and  you  say  that 
I  can  have  breakfast  here?' 

'  Oh,  you  can  have  anything  you  order,  sir.  I,  or  my 
mother,  will ' 

'  Very  well,  then;  we  may  consider  the  matter  settled. 
I'll  tell  them  to  send  down  my  things  from  the  theatre.' 

This  seemed  to  conclude  the  affair,  and  they  went 
downstairs.  But  Mr.  Lennox  stopped  on  the  next  land- 
ing, and  without  any  apparent  object  re-examined  the 
drawing-room.  Speaking  like  a  man  who  wanted  to 
start  a  conversation,  he  manifested  interest  in  every- 
thing, and  asked  questions  concerning  the  rattle  of  the 
sewing-machine,  which  could  be  heard  distinctly;  and 
before  she  could  stop  him  he  opened  the  door  of  the 
workroom.  He  wondered  at  all  the  brown  paper  pat- 
terns that  were  hung  on  the  walls,  and  Miss  Hender, 
too  eager  to  inform  him,  took  advantage  of  the  occasion 
to  glide  in  a  word  to  the  effect  that  she  was  going  to 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  31 

see  him  that  evening  at  the  theatre.  Kate  was  amused, 
but  felt  it  was  her  duty  to  take  the  first  opportunity  of 
interrupting  the  conversation.  For  some  unexplained 
reason  Mr.  Lennox  seemed  loath  to  go,  and  it  was  with 
difficulty  he  was  got  downstairs.  Even  then  he  could 
not  pass  the  kitchen  door  without  stopping  to  speak  to 
the  apprentices.  He  asked  them  where  they  had  found 
their  brown  hair  and  eyes,  and  attempted  to  exchange  a 
remark  with  Mrs.  Ede.  Kate  thought  the  encounter  un- 
fortunate, but  it  passed  off  better  than  she  expected. 
Mrs.  Ede  replied  that  the  little  girls  were  getting  on 
very  well,  and,  apparently  satisfied  with  this  answer, 
Mr.  Lennox  turned  to  go.  His  manner  indicated  his 
Bohemian  habits,  for  after  all  this  waste  of  time  he  sud- 
denly remembered  that  he  had  an  appointment,  and 
would  probably  miss  it  by  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour. 

'Will  you  require  any  dinner?'  asked  Kate,  following 
him  to  the  door. 

At  the  mention  of  the  word  '  dinner '  he  again  ap- 
peared to  forget  all  about  his  appointment.  His  face 
changed  its  expression,  and  his  manner  again  grew  con- 
fidential. He  asked  all  kind  of  questions  as  to  what 
she  could  get  him  to  eat,  but  without  ever  quite  deciding 
whether  he  would  be  able  to  find  time  to  eat  it.  Kate 
thought  she  had  never  seen  such  a  man.  At  last  in  a  fit 
of  desperation,  he  said: 

'  I'll  have  a  bit  of  cold  steak.  I  haven't  the  time  to 
dine,  but  if  you'll  put  that  out  for  me  ...  I  like  a 
bit  of  supper  after  the  theatre ' 

Kate  wished  to  ask  him  what  he  would  like  to  drink 
with  it,  but  it  was  impossible  to  get  an  answer.  He 
couldn't  stop  another  minute,  and,  dodging  the  passers- 
by,  he  rushed  rapidly  down  the  street.  She  watched 
until  the  big  shoulders  were  lost  in  the  crowd,  and  asked 
herself  if  she  liked  the  man  who  had  just  left  her;  but 


32  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

the  answer  slipped  from  her  when  she  tried  to  define 
it,  and  with  a  sigh  she  turned  into  the  shop  and  mechan- 
ically set  straight  those  shirts  that  hung  aslant  on  the 
traversing  wires.  At  that  moment  Mrs.  Ede  came  from 
the  kitchen  carrying  a  basin  of  soup  for  her  sick  son. 
She  wanted  to  know  why  Kate  had  stayed  so  long  talk- 
ing to  that  man. 

'  Talking  to  him!'  Kate  repeated,  surprised  at  the 
words  and  suspicious  of  an  implication  of  vanity.  '  If 
we're  going  to  take  his  money  it's  only  right  that  we 
should  try  to  make  him  comfortable.' 

'  I  doubt  if  his  ten  shillings  a  week  will  bring  us  much 
good,'  Mrs.  Ede  answered  sourly;  and  she  went  up- 
stairs, backbone  and  principles  equally  rigid,  leaving 
Kate  to  fume  at  what  she  termed  her  mother-in-law's 
unreasonableness. 

But  Kate  had  no  time  to  indulge  in  many  angry 
thoughts,  for  the  tall  gaunt  woman  returned  with  tears 
in  her  eyes  to  beg  pardon. 

'I'm  so  sorry,  dear.  Did  I  speak  crossly?  I'll  say 
no  more  about  the  actor,  I'll  promise.' 

'  I  don't  see  why  I  should  be  bullied  in  my  own 
house,'  Kate  answered,  feeling  that  she  must  assert  her- 
self. '  Why  shouldn't  I  let  my  rooms  to  Mr.  Lennox 
if  I  like?' 

'  You're  right,'  Mrs.  Ede  replied — '  I've  said  too 
much;  but  don't  turn  against  me,  Kate.' 

'  No,  no,  mother ;  I  don't  turn  against  you.  You're 
the  only  person  I  have  to  love.' 

At  these  words  a  look  of  pleasure  passed  over  the 
hard,  blunt  features  of  the  peasant  woman,  and  she  said 
with  tears  in  her  voice: 

'  You  know  I'm  a  bit  hard  with  my  tongue,  but  that's 
all;  I  don't  mean  it.' 

'  Well,  say  no  more,  mother,'  and  Kate  went  upstairs 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  33 

to  her  workroom.  Miss  Hender,  already  returned  from 
dinner,  was  trembling  with  excitement,  and  she  waited 
impatiently  for  the  door  to  be  shut  that  she  might  talk. 
She  had  been  round  to  see  her  friend,  the  stage  carpen- 
ter, and  he  had  told  her  all  about  the  actor.  Mr.  Len- 
nox was  the  boss;  Mr.  Hayes,  the  acting  manager,  was 
a  nobody,  generally  pretty  well  boozed;  and  Mr.  Cox, 
the  London  gent,  didn't  travel. 

Kate  listened,  only  half  understanding  what  was  said. 

'  And  what  part  does  he  play  in  Madame  Angot?'  she 
asked  as  she  bent  her  head  to  examine  the  bead  trim- 
mings she  was  stitching  on  to  the  sleeves. 

'  The  low  comedy  part/  said  Miss  Hender ;  but  see- 
ing that  Kate  did  not  understand,  she  hastened  to  ex- 
plain that  the  low  comedy  parts  meant  the  funny  parts. 

'  He's  the  man  who's  lost  his  wig — La-La-Ravodee, 
I  think  they  'call  it — and  a  very  nice  man  he  is.  When 
I  was  talking  to  Bill  I  could  see  Mr.  Lennox  between 
the  wings;  he  had  his  arm  round  Miss  Leslie's  shoulder. 
I'm  sure  he's  sweet  on  her.' 

Kate  looked  up  from  her  work  and  stared  at  Miss 
Hender  slowly.  The  announcement  that  Mr.  Lennox 
was  the  funny  man  was  disappointing,  but  to  hear  that 
he  was  a  woman's  lover  turned  her  against  him. 

'  All  those  actors  are  alike.  I  see  now  that  my 
mother-in-law  was  right.  I  shouldn't  have  let  him  my 
rooms.' 

'  One's  always  afraid  of  saying  anything  to  you, 
ma'am;  you  twist  one's  words  so.  I'm  sure  I  didn't 
mean  to  say  there  was  any  harm  between  him  and  Miss 
Leslie.  There,  perhaps  you'll  go  and  tell  him  that  I 
spoke  about  him.' 

'  I'm  sure  I  shall  do  nothing  of  the  sort.  Mr.  Len- 
nox has  taken  my  rooms  for  a  week,  and  there's  an  end 
of  it.  I'm  not  going  to  interfere  in  his  private  affairs.' 


34  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

The  conversation  then  came  to  a  pause,  and  all  that 
was  heard  for  a  long  time  was  the  clicking  of  the  needle 
and  the  rustling  of  silk.  Kate  wondered  how  it  was 
that  Mr.  Lennox  was  so  different  off  the  stage  from 
what  he  was  when  on;  and  it  seemed  to  her  strange  that 
such  a  nice  gentleman — for  she  was  obliged  to  admit 
that  he  was  that — should  choose  to  play  the  funny  parts. 
As  for  his  connection  with  Miss  Leslie,  that  of  course 
was  none  of  her  business.  What  did  it  matter  to  her? 
He  was  in  love  with  whom  he  pleased.  She'd  have 
thought  he  was  a  man  who  would  not  easily  fall  in  love; 
but  perhaps  Miss  Leslie  was  very  pretty,  and,  for  the 
matter  of  that,  they  might  be  going  to  be  married. 
Meanwhile  Miss  Hender  regretted  having  told  Kate 
anything  about  Mr.  Lennox.  The  best  and  surest  way 
was  to  let  people  find  out  things  for  themselves,  and  hav- 
ing an  instinctive  repugnance  to  virtue — at  least,  to 
questions  of  conscience — she  could  not  abide  whining 
about  spilt  milk.  Beyond  an  occasional  reference  to 
their  work,  the  women  did  not  speak  again,  until  at  three 
o'clock  Mrs.  Ede  announced  that  dinner  was  ready. 
There  was  not  much  to  eat,  however,  and  Kate  had  little 
appetite,  and  she  was  glad  when  the  meal  was  finished. 
She  had  then  to  help  Mrs.  Ede  in  getting  the  rooms 
ready,  and  when  this  was  done  it  was  time  for  tea.  But 
not  even  this  meal  did  they  get  in  comfort,  for  Mr.  Len- 
nox had  ordered  a  beefsteak  for  supper;  somebody 
would  have  to  go  to  fetch  it.  Mrs.  Ede  said  she  would, 
and  Kate  went  into  the  shop  to  attend  to  the  few  cus- 
tomers who  might  call  in  the  course  of  the  evening.  The 
last  remarkable  event  in  this  day  of  events  was  the  de- 
parture of  Miss  Hender,  who  came  downstairs  saying 
she  had  only  just  allowed  herself  time  to  hurry  to  the 
theatre;  she  feared  she  wouldn't  be  there  before  the  cur- 
tain went  up,  and  she  was  sorry  Kate  wasn't  coming, 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  35 

but  she  would  tell  her  to-morrow  all  about  Mr.  Lennox, 
and  how  the  piece  went.  As  Kate  bade  her  assistant 
good-night  a  few  customers  dropped  in,  all  of  whom 
gave  a  great  deal  of  trouble.  She  had  to  pull  down  a 
number  of  packages  to  find  what  was  wanted.  Then  her 
next-door  neighbour,  the  stationer's  wife,  called  to  ask 
after  Mr.  Ede  and  to  buy  a  reel  of  cotton;  and  so,  in 
evening  chat,  the  time  passed,  until  the  fruiterer's  boy 
came  to  ask  if  he  should  put  up  the  shutters. 

Kate  nodded,  and  remarked  to  her  friend,  who  had 
risen  to  go,  what  a  nice,  kind  man  Mr.  Jones  was. 

'  Yes,  indeed,  they  are  very  kind  people,  but  their 
prices  are  very  high.  Do  you  deal  with  them?' 

Kate  replied  that  she  did;  and,  as  the  fruiterer's  boy 
put  up  the  shutters  with  a  series  of  bangs,  she  tried  to 
persuade  her  neighbour  to  buy  a  certain  gown  she  had 
been  long  talking  of. 

'  Trimming  and  everything,  it  won't  cost  you  more 
than  thirty  shillings;  you'll  want  something  fresh  now 
that  summer's  coming  on.' 

'  So  I  shall.  I'll  speak  to  my  man  about  it  to-night. 
I  think  he'll  let  me  have  it.' 

'  He  won't  refuse  you  if  you  press  him.' 

'  Well,  we  shall  see,'  and  bidding  Kate  good-night  she 
passed  into  the  street. 

The  evening  was  fine,  and  Kate  stood  for  a  long  while 
watching  the  people  surging  out  of  the  potteries  towards 
Piccadilly.  '  Coming  out,'  she  said,  '  for  their  evening 
walk,'  and  she  was  glad  that  the  evening  was  fine. 
'  After  a  long  day  in  the  potteries  they  want  some  fresh 
air,'  and  then,  raising  her  eyes  from  the  streets,  she 
watched  the  sunset  die  out  of  the  west;  purple  and  yel- 
low streaks  still  outlined  the  grey  expanse  of  the  hills, 
making  the  brick  town  look  like  a  little  toy.  An  ugly 
little  brick  town — brick  of  all  colours:  the  pale  reddish- 


36  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

brown  of  decaying  brick-yards,  the  fierce  red  brick  of 
the  newly  built  warehouses  that  turns  to  purple,  and 
above  the  walls  scarlet  tiled  roofs  pointing  sharp  angles 
to  a  few  stars. 

Kate  stood  watching  the  fading  of  the  hills  into  night 
clouds,  interested  in  her  thoughts  vaguely.  Her 
thoughts  adrift  and  faded  somewhat  as  the  spectacle 
before  her.  She  wondered  if  her  lodger  would  be  sat- 
isfied with  her  mother's  cooking;  she  hoped  so.  He  was 
a  well-spoken  man,  but  she  could  not  hope  to  change 
mother.  As  the  image  of  the  lodger  floated  out  of  her 
mind  Hender's  came  into  it,  and  she  hoped  the  girl 
would  not  get  into  trouble.  So  many  poor  girls  are  in 
trouble;  how  many  in  the  crowd  passing  before  her 
door?  The  difficulty  she  was  in  with  Mrs.  Barnes's 
dress  suggested  itself,  and  with  a  shiver  and  a  sigh  she 
shut  the  street-door  and  went  upstairs.  The  day  had 
passed;  it  was  gone  like  a  hundred  days  before  it — 
wearily,  perhaps,  yet  leaving  in  the  mind  an  impression 
of  something  done,  of  duties  honestly  accomplished. 


Ill 


'  OH,  ma'am !'  Render  broke  in,  '  you  can't  think  how 
amusing  it  was  last  night!  I  never  enjoyed  myself  so 
much  in  my  life.  The  place  was  crammed!  Such  a 
house!  And  Miss  Leslie  got  three  encores  and  a  call 
after  each  act.' 

'  And  what  was  Mr.  Lennox  like  ?' 

'  Oh,  he  only  played  a  small  part — one  of  the  police- 
men. He  don't  play  Pom-poucet;  I  was  wrong.  It's 
too  heavy  a  part,  and  he's  too  busy  looking  after  the 
piece.  But  Joe  Mortimer  was  splendid;  I  nearly  died 
of  laughing  when  he  fell  down  and  lost  his  wig  in  the 
middle  of  the  stage.  And  Frank  Bret  looked  such  a 
swell,  and  he  got  an  encore  for  the  song,  "Oh,  Certainly 
I  Love  Clairette."  And  he  and  Miss  Leslie  got  another 
for  the  duet.  To-morrow  they  play  the  Cloches.' 

'  But  now  you've  seen  so  much  of  the  theatre  I  hope 
you'll  be  able  to  do  a  little  overtime  with  me.  I've  prom- 
ised to  let  Mrs.  Barnes  have  her  dress  by  to-morrow 
morning.' 

'  I'm  afraid  I  shan't  be  able  to  stay  after  six  o'clock.' 

'  But  surely  if  they're  doing  the  same  play  you  don't 
want  to  see  it  again?' 

'  Well  'tisn't  exactly  that,  but — well,  I  prefer  to  tell 
you  the  truth;  'tisn't  the  piece  I  go  to  the  theatre  for; 
I'm  one  of  the  dressers,  and  I  get  twelve  shillings  a 
week,  and  I  can't  afford  to  lose  it.  But  there's  no  use 
in  telling  Mrs.  Ede,  she'd  only  make  a  bother.' 

37 


38  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  How  do  you  mean,  dressing?' 

'  The  ladies  of  the  theatre  must  have  someone  to  dress 
them,  and  I  look  after  the  principals,  Miss  Leslie  and 
Miss  Beaumont,  that's  all.' 

'  And  how  long  have  you  been  doing  that  ?' 

'  Why,  about  a  month  now.     Bill  got  me  the  place.' 

This  conversation  had  broken  in  upon  a  silence  of 
nearly  half  an  hour;  with  bent  heads  and  clicking 
needles,  Kate  and  Hender  had  been  working  assidu- 
ously at  Mrs.  Barnes's  skirt. 

Having  a  great  deal  of  passementerie  ornamentation 
to  sew  on  to  the  heading  of  the  flounces,  and  much 
fringe  to  arrange  round  the  edge  of  the  drapery,  Kate 
looked  forward  to  a  heavy  day.  She  had  expected  Miss 
Hender  an  hour  earlier,  and  she  had  not  turned  up  un- 
til after  nine.  An  assistant  whose  time  was  so  occupied 
that  she  couldn't  give  an  extra  hour  when  you  were  in 
a  difficulty  was  of  very  little  use;  and  it  might  be  as 
well  to  look  out  for  somebody  more  suitable.  Besides, 
all  this  talk  about  theatres  and  actors  was  very  wrong; 
there  could  be  little  doubt  that  the  girl  was  losing  her 
character,  and  to  have  her  coming  about  the  house  would 
give  it  a  bad  name.  Such  were  Kate's  reflections  as 
she  handled  the  rustling  silk  and  folded  it  into  large 
plaitings.  Now  and  again  she  tried  to  come  to  a  deci- 
sion, but  she  was  not  sincere  with  herself.  She  knew 
she  liked  the  girl,  and  Hender's  conversation  amused 
her:  to  send  her  away  meant  to  surrender  herself  com- 
pletely to  her  mother-in-law's  stern  kindness  and  her 
husband's  irritability. 

Hender  was  the  window  through  which  Kate  viewed 
the  bustle  and  animation  of  life,  and  even  now,  annoyed 
as  she  was  that  she  would  not  be  able  to  get  the  dress 
done  in  time,  she  could  not  refrain  from  listening  to  the 
girl's  chatter.  There  was  about  Miss  Hender  that 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  39 

strange  charm  which  material  natures  possess  even  when 
they  offend.  Being  of  the  flesh,  we  must  sympathize 
with  it,  and  the  amiability  of  Render's  spirits  made  a 
great  deal  pass  that  would  have  otherwise  appeared 
wicked.  She  could  tell,  without  appearing  too  rude, 
how  Mr.  Wentworth,  the  lessee,  was  gone  on  a  certain 
lady  in  the  new  company,  and  would  give  her  anything 
if  she  would  chuck  up  her  engagement  and  come  and 
live  with  him.  When  Render  told  these  stories,  Kate, 
fearing  that  Mrs.  Ede  might  have  overheard,  looked 
anxiously  at  the  door,  and  under  the  influence  of  the 
emotion,  it  interested  her  to  warn  her  assistant  of  the 
perils  of  frequenting  bad  company.  But  as  Kate  lec- 
tured she  could  not  help  wondering  how  it  was  that  her 
life  passed  by  so  wearily.  Was  she  never  going  to  do 
anything  else  but  work?  she  often  asked  herself,  and 
then  reproached  herself  for  the  regret  that  had  risen 
unwittingly  up  in  her  mind  that  life  was  not  all  pleas- 
ure. It  certainly  was  not,  '  but  perhaps  it  is  better,'  she 
said  to  herself,  '  that  we  have  to  get  our  living,  for  me 
at  least ' — her  thoughts  broke  off  sharply,  and  she 
passed  out  of  the  present  into  a  long  past  time. 

Kate  had  never  known  her  father;  her  mother,  an 
earnest  believer  in  Wesley,  was  a  hard-working  woman 
who  made  a  pound  a  week  by  painting  on  china.  This 
was  sufficient  for  their  wants,  and  Mrs.  Howell's  only 
fears  were  that  she  might  lose  her  health  and  die  before 
her  time,  leaving  her  daughter  in  want.  To  avoid  this 
fate  she  worked  early  and  late  at  the  factory,  and  Kate 
was  left  in  the  charge  of  the  landlady,  a  childless  old 
woman  who,  sitting  by  the  fire,  used  to  tell  stories  of 
her  deceptions  and  misfortunes  in  life,  thereby  intoxi- 
cating the  little  girl's  brain  with  sentiment.  The 
mother's  influence  was  a  sort  of  make-weight;  Mrs. 
Howell  was  a  deeply  religious  woman,  and  Kate  was 
4 


40  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

often  moved  to  trace  back  a  large  part  of  herself  to 
Bible  readings  and  extemporary  prayers  offered  up  by 
the  bedside  in  the  evening. 

Her  school-days  were  unimportant.  She  learnt  to 
read  and  write  and  to  do  sums ;  that  was  all.  Kate  grew, 
softly  and  mystically  as  a  dark  damask  rose,  into  a 
pretty  woman  without  conversions  or  passions:  for  not- 
withstanding her  early  training,  religion  had  never  taken 
a  very  firm  hold  upon  her,  and  despite  the  fact  that  she 
married  into  a  family  very  similar  to  her  own,  although 
her  mother-in-law  was  almost  a  counterpart  of  her  real 
mother — a  little  harder  and  more  resolute,  but  as  god- 
fearing and  as  kind — Kate  had  caught  no  blast  of  re- 
ligious fervour ;  religion  taught  her  nothing,  inspired  her 
with  nothing,  could  influence  her  in  little.  She  was  not 
strong  nor  great,  nor  was  she  conscious  of  any  deep  feel- 
ing that  if  she  acted  otherwise  than  she  did  she  would 
be  living  an  unworthy  life.  She  was  merely  good  be- 
cause she  was  a  kind-hearted  woman,  without  bad  im- 
pulses, and  admirably  suited  to  the  life  she  was  leading. 

But  in  this  commonplace  inactivity  of  mind  there  was 
one  strong  characteristic,  one  bit  of  colour  in  all  these 
grey  tints:  Kate  was  dreamy,  not  to  say  imaginative. 
When  she  was  a  mere  child  she  loved  fairies,  and  took 
a  vivid  interest  in  goblins ;  and  when  afterwards  she  dis- 
carded these  stories  for  others,  it  was  not  because  it 
shocked  her  logical  sense  to  read  of  a  beanstalk  a  hun- 
dred feet  high,  but  for  a  tenderer  reason:  Jack  did  not 
find  a  beautiful  lady  to  love  him.  She  could  not  help 
feeling  disappointed,  and  when  the  London  Journal 
came  for  the  first  time  across  her  way,  with  the  story 
of  a  broken  heart,  her  own  heart  melted  with  sympathy ; 
the  more  sentimental  and  unnatural  the  romance,  the 
more  it  fevered  and  enraptured  her.  She  loved  to  read 
of  singular  subterranean  combats,  of  high  castles,  pris- 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  41 

oners,  hair-breadth  escapes;  and  her  sympathies  were 
always  with  the  fugitives.  It  was  also  very  delightful 
to  hear  of  lovers  who  were  true  to  each  other  in  spite 
of  a  dozen  wicked  uncles,  of  women  who  were  tempted 
until  their  hearts  died  within  them,  and  who  years  after 
threw  up  their  hands  and  said,,  '  Thank  God  that  I  had 
the  courage  to  resist!' 

The  second  period  of  her  sentimental  education  was 
when  she  passed  from  the  authors  who  deal  exclusively 
with  knights,  princesses,  and  kings  to  those  who  interest 
themselves  in  the  love  fortunes  of  doctors  and  curates. 

Amid  these  there  was  one  story  that  interested  her  in 
particular,  and  caused  her  deeper  emotions  than  the 
others.  It  concerned  a  beautiful  young  woman  with  a 
lovely  oval  face,  who  was  married  to  a  very  tiresome 
country  doctor.  This  lady  was  in  the  habit  of  reading 
Byron  and  Shelley  in  a  rich,  sweet-scented  meadow, 
down  by  the  river,  which  flowed  dreamily  through  smil- 
ing pasture-lands,  adorned  by  spreading  trees.  But  this 
meadow  belonged  to  a  squire,  a  young  man  with  grand, 
broad  shoulders,  who  day  after  day  used  to  watch  these 
readings  by  the  river  without  venturing  to  address  a 
word  to  the  fair  trespasser.  One  day,  however,  he  was 
startled  by  a  shriek:  in  her  poetical  dreamings  the  lady 
had  slipped  into  the  water.  A  moment  sufficed  to  tear 
off  his  coat,  and  as  he  swam  like  a  water-dog  he  had  no 
difficulty  in  rescuing  her.  Of  course  after  this  adven- 
ture he  had  to  call  and  inquire,  and  from  henceforth 
his  visits  grew  more  and  more  frequent,  and  by  a  strange 
coincidence,  he  used  to  come  riding  up  to  the  hall-door 
when  the  husband  was  away  curing  the  ills  of  the  coun- 
try-folk. Hours  were  passed  under  the  trees  by  the 
river,  he  pleading  his  cause,  and  she  refusing  to  leave 
poor  Arthur,  till  at  last  the  squire  gave  up  the  pursuit 
and  went  to  foreign  parts,  where  he  waited  thirty  years, 


42  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

until  he  heard  Arthur  was  dead.  And  then  he  came 
back  with  a  light  heart  to  his  first  and  only  love,  who 
had  never  ceased  to  think  of  him,  and  lived  with  her 
happily  for  ever  afterwards.  The  grotesque  mixture  of 
prose  and  poetry,  both  equally  false,  used  to  enchant 
Kate,  and  she  always  fancied  that  had  she  been  the 
heroine  of  the  book  she  would  have  acted  in  the  same 
way. 

Kate's  taste  for  novel-reading  distressed  Mrs. 
Howell ;  she  thought  it  '  a  sinful  waste  of  time,  not  to 
speak  of  the  way  it  turned  people's  heads  from  God  ' ; 
and  when  one  day  she  found  Kate's  scrap-book,  made 
up  of  poems  cut  from  the  Family  Herald,  she  began  to 
despair  of  her  daughter's  salvation.  The  answer  Kate 
made  to  her  mother's  reproaches  was:  '  Mother,  I've 
been  sewing  all  day;  I  can't  see  what  harm  it  can  be  to 
read  a  little  before  I  go  to  bed.  Nobody  is  required  to 
be  always  saying  their  prayers/ 

The  next  two  years  passed  away  unperceived  by 
either  mother  or  daughter,  and  then  an  event  occurred 
of  some  importance.  Their  neighbours  at  the  corner  of 
the  street  got  into  difficulties,  and  were  eventually  sold 
out  and  their  places  taken  by  strangers,  who  changed 
the  oil-shop  into  a  drapery  business.  The  new  arrivals 
aroused  the  keenest  interest,  and  Mrs.  Howell  and  her 
daughter  called  to  see  what  they  were  like,  as  did 
everybody  else.  The  acquaintance  thus  formed  was  re- 
newed at  church,  and  much  to  their  surprise  and  pleas- 
ure, they  discovered  that  they  were  of  the  same  religious 
persuasion. 

Henceforth  the  Howells  and  Edes  saw  a  great  deal 
of  each  other,  and  every  Sunday  after  church  the 
mothers  walked  home  together  and  the  young  people 
followed  behind.  Ralph  spoke  of  his  ill-health,  and 
Kate  pitied  him,  and  when  he  complimented  her  on  her 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  43 

beautiful  hair  she  blushed  with  pleasure.  For  much  as 
she  had  revelled  in  fictitious  sentiment,  she  had  some- 
how never  thought  of  seeking  it  in  nature,  and  now  that 
she  had  found  a  lover,  the  critical  sense  was  not  strong 
enough  in  her  to  lead  her  to  compare  reality  with  imag- 
ination. She  accepted  Ralph  as  unsuspectingly  as  she 
hitherto  accepted  the  tawdry  poetry  of  her  favourite 
fiction.  And  her  nature  not  being  a  passionate  one,  she 
was  able  to  do  this  without  any  apparent  transition  of 
sentiment.  She  pitied  him,  hoped  she  could  be  of  use 
in  nursing  him,  and  felt  flattered  at  the  idea  of  being 
mistress  of  a  shop. 

The  mothers  were  delighted,  and  spoke  of  the  coinci- 
dence of  their  religions  and  the  admirable  addition 
dressmaking  would  be  to  the  drapery  business.  Of  love, 
small  mention  was  made.  The  bridegroom  spoke  of  his 
prospects  of  improving  the  business,  the  bride  listened, 
interested  for  the  while  in  his  enthusiasm;  orders  came 
in,  and  Kate  was  soon  transformed  into  a  hard-working 
woman. 

This  change  of  character  passed  unperceived  by  all 
but  Mrs.  Howell,  who  died  wondering  how  it  came 
about.  Kate  herself  did  not  know;  she  fancied  that  it 
was  fully  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  she  had  no 
time — '  no  time  for  reading  now  ' — which  was  no  more 
than  the  truth;  but  she  did  not  complain;  she  accepted 
her  husband's  kisses  as  she  did  the  toil  he  imposed  on 
her — meekly,  unaffectedly,  as  a  matter  of  course,  as  if 
she  always  knew  that  the  romances  which  used  to  fasci- 
nate her  were  merely  idle  dreams,  having  no  bearing 
upon  the  daily  life  of  human  beings — things  fit  to  amuse 
a  young  girl's  fancies,  and  to  be  thrown  aside  when  the 
realities  of  life  were  entered  upon.  The  only  analogy 
between  the  past  and  present  was  an  ample  submission 
to  authority  and  an  indifference  to  the  world  and  its 


44  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

interest.  Even  the  fact  of  being  without  children  did 
not  seem  to  concern  her,  and  when  her  mother-in-law 
regretted  it  she  merely  smiled  languidly,  or  said,  '  We 
are  very  well  as  we  are.'  Of  the  world  and  the  flesh  she 
lived  almost  in  ignorance,  suspecting  their  existence 
only  through  Miss  Render.  Hender  was  attracted  by 
her  employer's  kindness  and  softness  of  manner  and 
Kate  by  her  assistant's  strength  of  will.  For  some 
months  past  a  friendship  had  been  growing  up  between 
the  two  women,  but  if  Kate  had  known  for  certain  that 
Hender  was  living  a  life  of  sin  with  the  stage  carpenter 
she  might  not  have  allowed  her  into  the  house.  But  the 
possibility  of  sin  attached  her  to  the  girl  in  the  sense 
that  it  forced  her  to  think  of  her  continually.  And  then 
there  was  a  certain  air  of  bravado  in  Miss  Render's 
freckled  face  that  Kate  admired.  She  instituted  com- 
parisons between  herself  and  the  assistant,  and  she  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  she  preferred  that  fair,  blonde 
complexion  to  her  own  clear  olive  skin ;  and  the  sparkle 
of  the  red  frizzy  hair  put  her  out  of  humour  with  the 
thick,  wavy  blue  tresses  which  encircled  her  small  tem- 
ples like  a  piece  of  black  velvet. 

As  she  continued  her  sewing  she  reconsidered  the 
question  of  Render's  dismissal,  but  only  to  perceive 
more  and  more  clearly  the  blank  it  would  occasion  in 
her  life.  And  besides  her  personal  feeling  there  was 
the  fact  to  consider  that  to  satisfy  her  customers  she  must 
have  an  assistant  who  could  be  depended  upon.  And  she 
did  not  know  where  she  would  find  another  who  would 
turn  out  work  equal  to  Render's.  At  last  Kate  said: 

'  I  don't  know  what  I  shall  do ;  I  promised  the  dress 
by  to-morrow  morning.' 

'  I  think  we'll  be  able  to  finish  it  to-day,'  Hender  an- 
swered. '  I'll  work  hard  at  it  all  the  afternoon ;  a  lot 
can  be  done  between  this  and  seven  o'clock.' 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  45 

'  Oh,  I  don't  know/  replied  Kate  dolefully ;  '  these 
leaves  take  such  a  time  to  sew  on;  and  then  there's  all 
the  festooning.' 

I  think  it  can  be  managed,  but  we  must  stick  at  it.' 

On  this  expression  of  goodwill  the  conversation  ceased 
for  the  time  being,  and  the  clicking  of  needles  and  the 
buzzing  of  flies  about  the  brown-paper  patterns  were  all 
that  was  heard  until  twelve  o'clock,  when  Mrs.  Ede  burst 
into  the  room. 

'  I  knew  what  it  would  be,'  she  said,  shutting  the  door 
after  her. 

'  What  is  it  ?  '  said  Kate,  looking  up  frightened. 

'  Well,  I  offered  to  do  him  a  chop  or  some  fried  eggs, 
but  he  says  he  must  have  an  omelette.  Did  you  ever 
hear  of  such  a  thing?  I  told  him  I  didn't  know  how  to 
make  one,  but  he  said  that  I  was  to  ask  you  if  you  could 
spare  the  time.' 

'  I'll  make  him  an  omelette,'  said  Kate,  rising.  '  Have 
you  got  the  eggs  ?  ' 

'  Yes.  The  trouble  that  man  gives  us !  What  with 
his  bath  in  the  morning,  and  two  pairs  of  boots  to  be 
cleaned,  and  the  clothes  that  have  to  be  brushed,  I've 
done  nothing  but  attend  to  him  since  ten  o'clock;  and 
what  hours  to  keep ! — it  is  now  past  eleven.' 

'  What's  the  use  of  grumbling  ?  You  know  the  work 
must  be  done,  and  I  can't  be  in  two  places  at  once.  You 
promised  me  you  wouldn't  say  anything  more  about  it, 
but  would  attend  to  him  just  the  same  as  any  other 
lodger.' 

'  I  can't  do  more  than  I'm  doing;  I  haven't  done  any- 
thing all  the  morning  but  run  upstairs,'  said  Mrs.  Ede 
very  crossly ;  '  and  I  wish  you'd  take  the  little  girls  out 
of  the  kitchen;  I  can't  look  after  them,  and  they  do 
nothing  but  look  out  of  the  window.' 

'  Very  well,  I'll  have  them  up  here;  they  can  sit  on  the 


46  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

sofa.  We  can  manage  with  them  now  that  we've  finished 
the  cutting  out.' 

Hender  made  no  reply  to  this  speech,  which  was  ad- 
dressed to  her.  She  hated  having  the  little  girls  up  in 
the  workroom,  and  Kate  knew  it. 

Kate  did  not  take  long  to  make  Mr.  Lennox's  omelette. 
There  was  a  bright  fire  in  the  kitchen,  the  muffins  were 
toasted,  and  the  tea  was  made. 

'  This  is  a  very  small  breakfast,'  she  said  as  she  put 
the  plates  and  dishes  on  the  tray.  '  Didn't  he  order  any- 
thing else?' 

'  He  spoke  about  some  fried  bacon,  but  I'll  attend  to 
that;  you  take  the  other  things  up  to  him.' 

As  Kate  passed  with  the  tray  in  her  hand  she  re- 
proved the  little  girls  for  their  idleness  and  told  them  to 
come  upstairs,  but  it  was  not  until  she  motioned  them 
into  the  workroom  that  she  realized  that  she  was  going 
into  Mr.  Lennox's  room. 

After  a  slight  pause  she  turned  the  handle  of  the  door 
and  entered.  Mr.  Lennox  was  lying  very  negligently  in 
the  armchair,  wrapped  in  his  dressing-gown.  '  Oh,  I  beg 

your  pardon,  sir ;  I  didn't  know '  she  said,  starting 

back.  Then,  blushing  for  shame  at  her  own  silliness  in 
taking  notice  of  such  things,  she  laid  the  breakfast  things 
on  the  table. 

Mr.  Lennox  thanked  her,  and  without  seeming  to  no- 
tice her  discomfiture  he  wrapped  himself  up  more  closely, 
drew  his  chair  forward,  and,  smacking  his  lips,  took  the 
cover  off  the  dish.  '  Oh,  very  nice  indeed,'  he  said,  '  but 
I'm  afraid  I've  given  you  a  great  deal  of  trouble;  the  old 
lady  said  you  were  very,  very  busy.' 

'  I've  to  finish  a  dress  to-day,  sir,  and  my  assist- 
ant  » 

Here  Kate  stopped,  remembering  that  if  Mr.  Lennox 
had  renewed  his  acquaintance  with  Hender  at  the  theatre, 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  47 

any  allusion  to  her  would  give  rise  to  further  conversa- 
tion. '  Oh,  yes,  I  know  Miss  Hender ;  she's  one  of  our 
dressers;  she  looks  after  our  two  leading  ladies;  Miss 
Leslie  and  Miss  Beaumont.  But  I  don't  see  the  bacon 
here/ 

'  Mrs.  Ede  is  cooking  it;  she'll  bring  it  up  in  a  minute 
or  two,'  Kate  answered,  edging  towards  the  door. 

'  We've  nothing  to  do  with  the  dressers/  said  Mr.  Len- 
nox, speaking  rapidly,  so  as  to  detain  his  landlady ;  '  but 
if  you're  as  pressed  with  your  work  as  you  tell  me,  I 
dare  say,  by  speaking  to  the  lessee,  I  might  manage  to 
get  Miss  Hender  off  for  this  one  evening.' 

'  Thank  you,  sir;  I'm  sure  it's  very  kind  of  you,  but 
I  shall  be  able  to  manage  without  that.' 

The  lodger  spoke  with  such  an  obvious  desire  to  oblige 
that  Kate  could  not  choose  but  like  him,  and  it  made  her 
wish  all  the  more  that  he  would  cover  up  his  big,  bare 
neck. 

'  'Pon  my  word,  this  is  a  capital  omelette/  he  said, 
licking  his  lips.  '  There  is  nothing  I  like  so  much  as 
a  good  omelette.  I  was  very  lucky  to  come  here,'  he 
added,  glancing  at  Kate's  waist,  which  was  slim  even  in 
her  old  blue  striped  dress. 

'  It's  very  kind  of  you  to  say  so,  sir/  she  said,  and  a 
glow  of  rose-colour  flushed  the  dark  complexion.  There 
was  something  very  human  in  this  big  man,  and  Kate 
did  not  know  whether  his  animalism  irritated  or  pleased 
her. 

'  You  weren't  at  the  theatre  last  night  ?  '  he  said,  forc- 
ing a  huge  piece  of  deeply  buttered,  spongy  French 
roll  into  his  mouth. 

'  No,  sir,  I  wasn't  there ;  I  rarely  go  to  the  theatre.' 

'Ah!  I'm  sorry.  How's  that?  We  had  a  tremen- 
dous house.  I  never  saw  the  piece  go  better.  If  this 


48  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

business  keeps  up  to  the  end  of  the  week  I  think  we 
shall  try  to  get  another  date.' 

Kate  did  not  know  what  '  another  date  '  meant,  but 
Hender  would  be  able  to  tell  her. 

'  You've  only  to  tell  me  when  you  want  to  see  the 
piece,  and  I'll  give  you  places.  Would  you  like  to  come 
to-night?' 

'  Not  to-night,  thank  you,  sir.  I  shall  be  busy  all 
the  evening,  and  my  husband  is  not  very  well.' 

The  conversation  then  came  to  an  irritating  pause. 
Mr.  Lennox  had  scraped  up  the  last  fragments  of  the 
omelette,  and  poured  himself  out  another  cup  of  tea, 
when  Mrs.  Ede  appeared  with  the  broiled  bacon.  On 
seeing  Kate  talking  to  Mr.  Lennox,  she  at  once  assumed 
an  air  of  mingled  surprise  and  regret. 

Kate  noticed  this,  but  Mr.  Lennox  had  no  eyes  for 
anything  but  the  bacon,  which  he  heaped  on  his  plate 
and  devoured  voraciously.  It  pleased  Kate  to  see  him 
enjoy  his  breakfast,  but  while  she  was  admiring  him 
Mrs.  Ede  said  as  she  moved  towards  the  door,  '  Can  I 
do  anything  for  you,  sir  ?  ' 

'  Well,  no,'  replied  Mr.  Lennox  indifferently ;  but 
seeing  that  Kate  was  going  too,  he  swallowed  a  mouth- 
ful of  tea  hastily  and  said,  '  I  was  just  telling  the  lady 
here  that  we  had  a  tremendous  success  last  night,  and 
that  she  ought  to  come  and  see  the  piece.  I  think  she 
said  she  had  no  one  to  go  with.  You  should  take  her. 
I'm  sure  you  will  like  the  Cloches.' 

Mrs.  Ede  looked  indignant,  but  after  a  moment  she 
recovered  herself,  and  said  severely  and  emphatically: 
'  Thank  you,  sir,  but  I'm  a  Christian  woman.  No  offence, 
sir,  but  I  don't  think  such  things  are  right. 

'  Ah !  don't  you,  indeed  ?  '  replied  the  mummer,  look- 
ing at  her  in  blank  astonishment.  But  the  expression 
of  his  face  soon  changed,  and  as  if  struck  suddenly  by 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  49 

some  painful  remembrance,  he  said,  '  You're  a  Dissenter 
or  something  of  that  kind,  I  suppose.  We  lost  a  lot  of 
money  at  Bradford  through  people  of  your  persuasion; 
they  jolly  well  preached  against  us.' 

Mrs.  Ede  did  not  answer,  and  after  a  few  brief  apolo- 
getic phrases  to  the  effect  that  it  would  not  do  for  us 
all  to  think  alike,  Kate  withdrew  to  her  workroom,  ask- 
ing herself  if  Mr.  Lennox  would  take  offence  and  leave 
them.  Hender  suspected  that  something  had  occurred, 
and  was  curious  to  hear  what  it  was ;  but  there  sat  those 
idiotic  little  girls,  and  of  course  it  wouldn't  do  to  speak 
before  them.  Once  she  hinted  that  she  had  heard  that 
Mr.  Lennox,  though  a  very  nice  man,  was  a  bit  quick- 
tempered, a  query  that  Kate  answered  evasively,  saying 
that  it  was  difficult  to  know  what  Mr.  Lennox  was  like. 
Words  were  an  effort  to  her,  and  she  could  not  detach  a 
single  precise  thought  from  the  leaden-coloured  dreams 
which  hung  about  her. 

Click,  click,  went  the  needles  all  day  long,  and  Kate 
wondered  what  a  woman  who  lived  in  a  thirty-pound 
house  could  want  with  a  ten-pound  dress.  But  that  was 
no  affair  of  hers,  and  as  it  was  most  important  she  should 
not  disappoint  her,  Kate  kept  Hender  to  dinner;  and  as 
compensation  for  the  press  of  work,  she  sent  round  to 
the  public  for  three  extra  half-pints.  They  needed  a 
drink,  for  the  warmth  of  the  day  was  intense.  Along 
the  red  tiles  of  the  houses,  amid  the  brick  courtyards, 
the  sun's  rays  created  an  oven-like  atmosphere.  From 
the  high  wall  opposite  the  dead  glare  poured  into  the 
little  front  kitchen  through  the  muslin  blinds,  burning 
the  pot  of  green-stuff,  and  falling  in  large  spots  upon 
the  tiled  floor ;  and  overcome  by  the  heat,  the  two  women 
lay  back  on  the  little  red  calico-covered  sofa,  languidly 
sipping  their  beer,  and  thinking  vaguely  of  when  they 
would  have  to  begin  work  again.  Hender  lolled  with 


50  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

her  legs  stretched  out;  Kate  rested  her  head  upon  her 
hand  wearily;  Mrs.  Ede  sat  straight,  apparently  unheed- 
ing the  sunlight  which  fell  across  the  plaid  shawl  that  she 
wore  winter  and  summer.  She  drank  her  beer  in  quick 
gulps,  as  if  even  the  time  for  swallowing  was  rigidly 
portioned  out.  The  others  watched  her,  knowing  that 
when  her  pewter  was  empty  she  would  turn  them  out  of 
the  kitchen.  In  a  few  moments  she  said,  '  I  think,  Kate, 
that  if.  you're  in  a  hurry  you'd  better  get  on  with  your 
dress.  I  have  to  see  to  Mr.  Lennox's  dinner,  and  I 
can't  have  you  ahanging  about.  As  it  is,  I  don't  know 
how  I'm  to  get  the  work  done.  There's  a  leg  of  mutton 
to  be  roasted,  and  a  pudding  to  be  made,  and  all  by 
four  o'clock.' 

Kate  calmed  the  old  woman  with  a  few  words,  and 
taking  Ralph's  dinner  from  her,  carried  it  upstairs.  She 
found  her  husband  better,  and,  setting  the  tray  on  the 
edge  of  the  bed,  she  answered  the  questions  he  put  to 
her  concerning  the  actor  briefly;  then  begged  of  him 
to  excuse  her,  as  she  heard  voices  in  the  shop.  Mr. 
Lennox  had  come  in  bringing  two  men  with  him,  Joe 
Mortimer,  the  low  comedian,  and  young  Montgomery,  the 
conductor,  and  it  became  difficult  to  prevent  Hender 
from  listening  at  the  doors,  and  almost  useless  to  remind 
her  of  the  fact  that  there  were  children  present,  so  ex- 
cited did  she  become  when  she  spoke  of  Bret's  love 
affairs. 

But  at  six  o'clock  she  put  on  her  hat,  and  there  was 
no  dissuading  her;  Mrs.  Barnes  must  wait  for  her  dress. 
There  was  still  much  to  be  done,  and  when  Mrs.  Ede 
called  from  the  kitchen  that  tea  was  ready,  Kate  did 
not  at  first  answer,  and  when  at  last  she  descended 
she  remained  only  long  enough  to  eat  a  piece  of  bread 
and  butter.  Her  head  was  filled  with  grave  forebodings, 
that  gradually  drifted  and  concentrated  into  one  fixed 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  51 

idea — not  to  disappoint  Mrs.  Barnes.  Once  quite  sud- 
denly, she  was  startled  by  an  idea  which  flashed  across 
her  mind,  and  stopping  in  the  middle  of  a  '  leaf,'  she 
considered  the  question  that  had  propounded  itself. 
Lodgers  often  make  love  to  their  landladies ;  what  would 
she  do  if  Mr.  Lennox  made  love  to  her?  Such  a  thing 
might  occur.  An  expression  of  annoyance  contracted 
her  face,  and  she  resumed  her  sewing.  The  hours  passed 
slowly  and  oppressively.  It  was  now  ten  o'clock,  and 
the  tail  had  still  to  be  bound  with  braid,  and  the  side 
strings  to  be  sewn  in.  She  had  no  tape  by  her,  and 
thought  of  putting  off  these  finishing  touches  till  the 
morning,  but  plucking  up  her  courage,  she  determined 
to  go  down  and  fetch  from  the  shop  what  was  required. 
The  walk  did  her  good,  but  it  was  hard  to  sit  down  to 
work  again;  and  the  next  few  minutes  seemed  to  her  in- 
terminable: but  at  last  the  final  stitch  was  given,  the 
thread  bitten  off,  and  the  dress  held  up  in  triumph.  She 
looked  at  it  for  a  moment  with  a  feeling  of  pride,  which 
soon  faded  into  a  sensation  of  indifference. 

All  the  same  her  day's  labour  was  over;  she  was  now 
free.  But  the  thought  carried  a  bitterness:  she  remem- 
bered that  there  was  no  place  for  her  to  go  to  but  her 
sick  husband's  room.  Yet  she  had  been  looking  forward 
to  having  at  least  one  night's  rest,  and  it  exasperated  her 
to  think  that  there  was  nothing  for  her  but  a  hard  pallet 
in  the  back  room,  and  the  certainty  of  being  awakened 
several  times  to  attend  to  Ralph.  She  asked  herself 
passionately  if  she  was  always  going  to  remain  a  slave 
and  a  drudge?  Render's  words  came  back  to  her  with 
a  strange  distinctness,  and  she  saw  that  she  knew  noth- 
ing of  pleasure,  or  even  of  happiness;  and  in  a  very 
simple  way  she  wondered  what  were  really  the  ends  of 
life.  If  she  were  good  and  religious  like  her  mother  or 
her  mother-in-law But  somehow  she  could  never 


52  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

feel  as  they  did.  Heaven  seemed  so  far  away.  Of 
course  it  was  a  consolation  to  think  there  was  a  happier 

and  better  world;  still — still Not  being  able  to 

pursue  the  thread  any  further,  she  stopped,  puzzled, 
and  a  few  moments  after  she  was  thinking  of  the  lady 
who  used  to  read  Byron  and  Shelley,  and  who  resisted 
her  lover's  entreaties  so  bravely.  Every  part  of  the  for- 
gotten story  came  back  to  her.  She  realized  the  place 
they  used  to  dream  in.  She  could  see  them  watching 
with  ardent  eyes  the  paling  of  the  distant  sky  as  they 
listened  to  the  humming  of  insects,  breathing  the  honied 
odour  of  the  flowers;  she  saw  her  leaning  on  his  arm 
caressingly,  whilst  pensively  she  tore  with  the  other 
hand  the  leaves  as  they  passed  up  the  long  terrace. 

Then  as  the  vision  became  more  personal  and  she 
identified  herself  with  the  heroine  of  the  book,  she 
thought  of  the  wealth  of  love  she  had  to  give,  and  it 
seemed  to  her  unutterably  sad  that  it  should  bloom  like 
a  rose  in  a  desert  unknown  and  unappreciated. 

This  was  the  last  flight  of  her  dream.  The  frail 
wings  of  her  imagination  could  sustain  her  no  longer, 
and  too  weary  to  care  for  or  even  to  think  of  anything, 
she  went  upstairs,  to  find  Mrs.  Ede  painting  her  son's 
chest  and  back  with  iodine.  He  had  a  bad  attack, 
which  "was  beginning  to  subside.  His  face  was  haggard, 
his  eyes  turgid,  and  the  two  women  talked  together. 
Mrs.  Ede  was  indignant,  and  told  of  all  her  trouble 
with  the  dinner.  She  had  to  fetch  cigars  and  drinks. 
Kate  listened,  watching  her  husband  all  the  while.  He 
began  to  get  a  little  better,  and  Mrs.  Ede  took  advan- 
tage of  the  occasion  to  suggest  that  it  was  time  for  even- 
ing prayers. 

In  days  when  speech  was  possible,  it  was  Ralph  who 
read  the  customary  chapter  of  the  Bible  and  led  the 
way  with  the  Lord's  Prayer;  but  when  words  were  for- 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  53 

bidden  to  him  his  mother  supplied  his  place.  The  tall 
figure  knelt  upright.  It  was  not  a  movement  of  cringing 
humility,  but  of  stalwart  belief,  and  as  she  handed  her 
the  Bible,  Kate  could  not  help  thinking  that  there  was 
pride  in  her  mother-in-law's  very  knees. 

The  old  woman  turned  over  the  leaves  for  a  few  sec- 
onds in  silence;  then,  having  determined  on  a  chapter, 
she  began  to  read.  But  she  had  not  got  beyond  a  few 
sentences  before  she  was  interrupted  by  the  sound  of 
laughing  voices  and  stamping  feet. 

She  stopped  reading,  and  looked  from  Kate  to  her 
husband.  He  was  at  the  moment  searching  for  his 
pocket-handkerchief.  Kate  rose  to  assist  him,  and  Mrs. 
Ede  said: 

'  It's  shameful !  it's  disgraceful !' 

'  It's  only  Mr.  Lennox  coming  in.' 

'  Only  Mr.  Lennox !'  At  that  moment  she  was  inter- 
rupted by  the  lighter  laughter  of  female  voices;  she 
paused  to  listen,  and  then,  shutting  the  book  fiercely, 
she  said,  '  From  the  first  I  was  against  letting  our  rooms 
to  a  mummer;  but  I  didn't  think  I  should  live  to  see  my 
son's  house  turned  into  a  night  house.  I  shall  not  stop 
here.' 

'  Not  stop  here — eh,  eh?  We  must  tell — tell  him 
that  it  can't  be  allowed/  Ralph  wheezed. 

'  And  I  should  like  to  know  who  these  women  are  he 
has  dared  to  bring  into People  he  has  met  in  Picca- 
dilly, I  suppose !' 

'  Oh,  no !'  interrupted  Kate,  '  I'm  sure  that  they  are 
the  ladies  of  the  theatre/ 

'  And  where's  the  difference  ?'  Mrs.  Ede  asked 
fiercely.  Sectarian  hatred  of  worldly  amusement 
flamed  in  her  eyes,  and  made  common  cause  with  the 
ordinary  prejudice  of  the  British  landlady.  Mr.  Ede 
shared  his  mother's  opinions,  but  as  he  was  then  suffer- 


54  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

ing  from  a  splitting  headache,  his  chief  desire  was  that 
she  should  lower  the  tone  of  her  voice. 

'  For  goodness'  sake  don't  speak  so  loud !'  he  said 
plaintively.  '  Of  course  he  mustn't  bring  women  into 
the  house;  but  he  had  better  be  told  so.  Kate,  go  down 
and  tell  him  that  these  ladies  must  leave.' 

Kate  stood  aghast  at  hearing  her  fate  thus  deter- 
mined, and  she  asked  herself  how  she  was  to  tell  Mr. 
Lennox  that  he  must  put  his  friends  out  of  doors.  She 
hesitated,  and  during  a  long  silence  all  three  listened. 
A  great  guffaw,  a  woman's  shriek,  a  peal  of  laughter, 
and  then  a  clinking  of  glasses  was  heard.  Even  Kate's 
face  told  that  she  thought  it  very  improper,  and  Mrs. 
Ede  said  with  a  theatrical  air  of  suppressed  passion: 

'  Very  well ;  I  suppose  that  is  all  that  can  be  done  at 
present.' 

Feeling  very  helpless,  Kate  murmured,  '  I  don't  see 
how  I'm  going  to  tell  them  to  go.  Hadn't  we  better  put 
it  off  until  morning?' 

'  Till  morning !'  said  Mr.  Ede,  trying  to  button  his 
dirty  nightshirt  across  his  hairy  chest.  '  I'm  not  going 
to  listen  to  that  noise  all  night.  Kate,  you  g-go  and 
tu-r-rn  them  out.' 

'  I'm  sorry,  dearie/  said  Mrs.  Ede,  seeing  her  daugh- 
ter-in-law's distress.  '  I'll  soon  send  them  away.' 

'Oh,  no!     I'd  rather  go  myself,'  said  Kate. 

'  Very  well,  dear.  I  only  thought  you  might  not  like 
to  go  down  among  a  lot  of  rough  people.' 

The  noise  downstairs  was  in  the  meanwhile  increas- 
ing, and  Ralph  grew  as  angry  as  his  asthma  would 
allow  him.  '  They're  just  killing  me  with  their  noise. 
Go  down  at  once  and  tell  them  they  must  leave  the 
house  instantly.  If  you  don't  I'll  go  myself.' 

Mrs.  Ede  made  a  movement  towards  the  door,  but 
Kate  stopped  her,  saying: 


A1   MUMMER'S   WIFE  55 

'  I'll  go;  it's  my  place.'  As  she  descended  the  stairs 
she  heard  a  man's  voice  screaming  above  the  general 
hubbub : 

*  I'll  tell  you  what;  if  Miss  Beaumont  doesn't  wait 
for  my  beat  another  night,  I'll  insist  on  a  rehearsal  be- 
ing called.  She  took  the  concerted  music  in  the  finale 
of  the  first  act  two  whole  bars  before  her  time.  It  was 
damned  awful.  I  nearly  broke  my  stick  trying  to  stop 
her.' 

'  Quite  true ;  I  never  saw  the  piece  go  so  badly.  Bret 
was  "fluffing  "  all  over  the  shop.' 

Kate  listened  to  these  fragments  of  conversation, 
asked  herself  how  she  was  to  walk  in  upon  those  people 
and  tell  them  that  they  must  keep  quiet. 

'  And  the  way  Beaumont  tries  to  spoon  with  Dick. 
She  nearly  missed  her  cue  once  with  sneaking  after  him 
in  the  wings.' 

A  peal  of  laughter  followed.  This  sadly  determined 
Kate  to  act ;  and  without  having  made  up  her  mind  what 
to  say  she  turned  the  handle  of  the  door  and  walked 
into  the  room. 

The  three  gas-burners  were  blazing,  wine-glasses 
were  on  the  table,  and  Mr.  Lennox  stood  twisting  a 
corkscrew  into  a  bottle  which  he  held  between  his  fat 
thighs.  On  the  little  green  sofa  Miss  Lucy  Leslie  lay 
back  playing  with  her  bonnet-strings.  Her  legs  were 
crossed,  and  a  lifted  skirt  showed  a  bit  of  striped  stock- 
ing. Next  her,  with  his  spare  legs  sprawled  over  the 
arm  of  the  easy-chair,  was  Mr.  Montgomery,  the  thin- 
nest being  possible  to  imagine,  in  grey  clothes.  His 
nose  was  enormous,  and  he  pushed  up  his  glasses  when 
Kate  came  into  the  room  with  a  movement  of  the  left 
hand  that  was  clearly  habitual.  On  the  other  side  of 
the  round  table  sat  Mr.  Joe  Mortimer,  the  heavy  lead, 
the  celebrated  miser  in  the  Cloches.  A  tall  girl  stand- 
5 


56  A   MUMMER'S   WIFE 

ing  behind  him  playfully  twisted  his  back  hair.  He  ad- 
dressed paternal  admonitions  to  her  from  time  to  time 
in  an  artificially  cracked  voice. 

'  Please,  sir/  said  Kate  pleadingly,  '  I'm  very  sorry, 
but  we  cannot  keep  open  house  after  eleven  o'clock.' 

A  deep  silence  followed  this  announcement.  Miss 
Leslie  looked  up  at  Kate  curiously.  Mr.  Lennox  stopped 
twisting  the  corkscrew  into  the  bottle,  and  the  low  come- 
dian, seizing  the  opportunity,  murmured  in  his  mechan- 
ical voice  to  the  girl  behind  him,  '  Open  house !  Of 
course,  she's  quite  right.  I  knew  there  was  a  draught 
somewhere;  I  felt  my  hair  blowing  about.' 

Everybody  laughed,  and  the  merriment  still  contribut- 
ed to  discountenance  the  workwoman. 

'Will  he  never  speak  and  let  me  go?'  she  asked  her- 
self. At  last  he  did  speak,  and  his  words  fell  upon  her 
like  blows. 

'  I  don't  know  what  you  mean,  Mrs.  Ede,'  he  said  in 
a  loud,  commanding  voice.  '  I  made  no  agreement  with 
you  that  I  wasn't  to  bring  friends  home  with  me  in  the 
evening.  Had  I  known  that  I  was  taking  lodgings  in 
a  church  I  wouldn't  have  come/ 

She  felt  dreadfully  humiliated,  and  nothing  was  really 
present  in  her  mind  but  a  desire  to  conciliate  Mr.  Len- 
nox. 

'  It  isn't  my  fault,  sir.  I  really  don't  mind ;  but  my 
mother-in-law  and  my  husband  won't  have  people  com- 
ing into  the  house  after  ten  o'clock.' 

Mr.  Lennox's  face  showed  that  his  heart  had  softened 
towards  her,  and  when  she  mentioned  that  her  husband 
was  lying  ill  hi  bed,  turning  round  to  his  company,  he 
said: 

'  I  think  we  are  making  too  much  noise ;  we  shouldn't 
like  it  ourselves  if ' 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  57 

But  just  at  that  moment,  when  all  was  about  to  end 
pleasantly,  Mrs.  Ede  was  heard  at  the  top  of  the  stairs. 

'  I'm  a  Christian  woman,  and  will  not  remain  in  a 
house  where  drinking  and  women ' 

This  speech  changed  everything.  Mr.  Lennox's  eyes 
flashed  passion,  and  he  made  a  movement  as  if  he  were 
going  to  shout  an  answer  back  to  Mrs.  Ede,  but  check- 
ing himself,  he  said,  addressing  Kate,  '  I  beg  that  you 
leave  my  rooms,  ma'am.  You  can  give  me  warning  in 
the  morning  if  you  like,  or  rather,  I'll  give  it  to  you; 
but  for  this  evening,  at  least,  the  place  is  mine,  and  I 
shall  do  what  I  like.'  On  that  he  advanced  towards 
the  door  and  threw  it  open. 

Tears  stood  in  her  eyes.  She  looked  sorrowfully  at 
Mr.  Lennox.  He  noticed  the  pitiful,  appealing  glance, 
but  was  too  angry  to  understand.  The  look  was  her 
whole  soul.  She  did  not  see  Miss  Leslie  sneering,  nor 
Mr.  Montgomery's  grinning  face.  She  saw  nothing  but 
Mr.  Lennox,  and,  stunned  by  the  thought  of  his  leaving 
them,  she  followed  her  mother-in-law  upstairs.  The  old 
woman  scolded  and  rowed.  To  have  that  lot  of  men  and 
women  smoking  and  drinking  after  eleven  o'clock  in  the 
house  was  not  to  be  thought  of,  and  she  tried  to  force 
her  son  to  say  that  the  police  must  be  sent  for.  But  it 
was  impossible  to  get  an  answer  from  him;  the  excite- 
ment and  effort  of  speaking  had  rendered  him  speech- 
less, and  holding  his  moppy  black  hair  with  both  hands, 
he  wheezed  in  deep  organ  tones.  Kate  looked  at  him 
blankly,  and  longed  for  some  place  out  of  hearing  of 
his  breath  and  out  of  the  smell  of  the  medicine-bottles. 
His  mother  was  now  insisting  on  his  taking  a  couple  of 
pills,  and  called  upon  Kate  to  find  the  box.  The  sharp, 
sickly  odour  of  the  aloes  was  abominable,  and  with  her 
stomach  turning,  she  watched  her  husband  trying  vainly 
to  swallow  the  dose  with  the  aid  of  a  glass  of  water. 


58  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  t 

Stop  in  this  room !  No,  that  she  couldn't  do !  It  would 
poison  her.  She  wanted  sleep  and  fresh  air.  Where 
could  she  get  them?  The  mummer  was  in  the  spare 
room;  but  he  would  be  gone  to-morrow,  and  she  would 
be  left  alone.  The  thought  startled  her,  though  she  soon 
forgot  it  in  her  longing  to  get  out  of  her  husband's 
sight.  Every  moment  this  desire  grew  stronger,  and  at 
last  she  said: 

'  I  cannot  stay  here;  another  night  would  kill  me. 
Will  you  let  me  have  your  room?' 

'  Certainly  I  will,  my  dear/  replied  the  old  woman, 
astonished  not  so  much  at  the  request,  but  at  the  vehe- 
mence of  the  emphasis  laid  upon  the  words.  '  You're 
looking  dreadfully  worn  out,  my  dear;  I'll  see  to  my 
boy/ 

As  soon  as  her  request  had  been  granted,  Kate  hesi- 
tated as  if  she  feared  she  was  doing  wrong,  and  she 
looked  at  her  husband,  wondering  if  he  would  call  her 
back. 

But  he  took  no  heed;  his  attention  was  too  entirely 
occupied  by  his  breath  to  think  either  of  her  or  of  the 
necessity  of  sending  for  the  police,  and  he  waved  his 
mother  away  when  she  attempted  to  speak  to  him. 

'Are  those  men  going  to  stop  there  all  night?'  Mrs. 
Ede  asked. 

'  Oh,  I  really  don't  know ;  I'm  too  tired  to  bother 
about  it  any  more,'  replied  Kate  petulantly.  '  It's  all 
your  fault — you're  to  blame  for  everything;  you've  no 
right  to  interfere  with  the  lodgers  in  my  house.' 

Mrs.  Ede  raised  her  arms  as  she  sought  for  words, 
but  Kate  walked  out  of  the  room  without  giving  her  time 
to  answer.  Suddenly  a  voice  cried  in  a  high  key: 

'  Who  do  you  take  me  for,  Dick  ?  I  wasn't  born  yes- 
terday. A  devilish  pretty  woman,  if  you  ask  me.  What 
hair! — like  velvet!' 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  59 

Kate  stopped.  '  Black  hair/  she  said  to  herself — 
'  they  must  be  talking  of  me/  and  she  listened  intently. 

The  remark,  however,  did  not  appear  to  have  been 
particularly  well-timed,  for  after  a  long  silence,  a 
woman's  voice  said: 

'  Well,  I  don't  know  whether  he  liked  her,  and  I  don't 
care,  but  what  I'm  not  going  to  do  is  to  wait  here  listen- 
ing to  you  all  cracking  up  a  landlady's  good  looks.  I'm 
off.' 

A  scuffle  then  seemed  to  be  taking  place ;  half  a  dozen 
voices  spoke  together,  and  in  terror  of  her  life  Kate  flew 
across  the  workroom  to  Mrs.  Ede's  bed. 

The  door  of  the  sitting-room  was  flung  open  and  ca- 
joling and  protesting  words  echoed  along  the  passage 
up  and  down  the  staircase.  It  was  disgraceful,  and 
Kate  expected  every  minute  to  hear  her  mother-in-law's 
voice  mingling  in  the  fray;  but  peace  was  restored,  and 
for  at  least  an  hour  she  listened  to  sounds  of  laughing 
voices  mingling  with  the  clinking  of  glasses.  At  last 
Dick  wished  his  friends  good-night,  and  Kate  lay  under 
the  sheets  and  listened.  Something  was  going  to  hap- 
pen. 'He  thinks  me  a  pretty  woman;  she  is  jealous/ 
were  phrases  that  rang  without  ceasing  in  her  ears. 
Then,  hearing  his  door  open,  she  fancied  he  was  coming 
to  seek  her,  and  in  consternation  buried  herself  under 
the  bedclothes,  leaving  only  her  black  hair  over  the  pil- 
lows to  show  where  she  had  disappeared.  But  the  dupli- 
cate drop  of  a  pair  of  boots  was  conclusive,  and  assur- 
ing herself  that  he  would  not  venture  on  such  a  liberty, 
she  strove  to  compose  herself  to  sleep. 


IV 


NEXT  day,  about  eleven  o'clock,  Kate  walked  up  Mar- 
ket Street  with  Mrs.  Barnes's  dress,  meditating  on  the 
letter  she  had  received.  A  very  serious  matter  this  an- 
gry letter  was  to  Kate,  and  she  thought  of  what  she 
could  say  to  satisfy  her  customer.  Her  anxiety  of  mind 
caused  her  to  walk  faster  than  she  was  aware  of,  up  the 
hill  towards  the  square  of  sky  where  the  passers-by 
seemed  like  figures  on  the  top  of  a  monument.  At  the 
top  of  the  hill  she  would  turn  to  the  left  and  descend 
towards  the  little  quasi  villa  residences  which  form  the 
suburbs  of  Northwood.  Ten  minutes  later  Kate  ap- 
proached Mrs.  Barnes's  door  hot  and  out  of  breath,  her 
plans  matured,  determined,  if  the  worst  came  to  the 
worst,  to  let  the  dress  go  at  a  reduction.  Her  present 
difficulty  was  so  great  that  she  forgot  other  troubles, 
and  it  was  not  until  she  had  received  her  money  that  she 
remembered  Mr.  Lennox.  He  was  going.  Her  rooms 
would  be  empty  again.  She  was  sorry  he  was  going,  and 
at  the  top  of  Market  Street  she  stood  at  gaze,  surprised 
by  the  view,  though  she  had  never  seen  any  other.  A 
long  black  valley  lay  between  her  and  the  dim  hills  far 
away,  miles  and  miles  in  length,  with  tanks  of  water 
glittering  like  blades  of  steel,  and  gigantic  smoke  clouds 
rolling  over  the  stems  of  a  thousand  factory  chimneys. 
She  had  not  come  up  this  hillside  at  the  top  of  Market 

60 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  61 

Street  for  a  long  while;  for  many  years  she  had  not 
stood  there  and  gazed  at  the  view,  not  since  she  was  a 
little  girl,  and  the  memories  that  she  cherished  in  her 
workroom  between  Hanley  and  the  Wever  Hills  were 
quite  different  from  the  scene  she  was  now  looking 
upon;  she  saw  the  valley  with  different  eyes;  she  saw 
it  now  with  a  woman's  eyes,  before  she  had  seen  it  with 
a  child's  eyes.  She  remembered  the  ruined  collieries 
and  the  black  cinder-heaps  protruding  through  the  hill- 
side on  which  she  was  now  standing.  In  childhood 
these  ruins  were  convenient  places  to  play  hide-and- 
seek  in.  But  now  they  seemed  to  convey  a  meaning  to 
her  mind,  a  meaning  that  was  not  very  clear,  that  per- 
plexed her,  that  she  tried  to  put  aside  and  yet  could 
not.  At  her  left,  some  fifty  feet  below,  running  in  the 
shape  of  a  fan,  round  a  belt  of  green,  were  the  roofs  of 
Northwood — black  brick  unrelieved  except  by  the  yel- 
low chimney-pots,  specks  of  colour  upon  a  line  of  soft, 
cotton-like  clouds  melting  into  grey,  the  grey  passing 
into  blue,  and  the  blue  spaces  widening.  '  It  will  be  a 
hot  day,'  she  said  to  herself,  and  fell  to  thinking  that 
a  hot  day  was  hotter  on  this  hillside  than  elsewhere.  At 
every  moment  the  light  grew  more  and  more  intense, 
till  a  distant  church  spire  faded  almost  out  of  sight, 
and  she  was  glad  she  had  come  up  here  to  admire  the 
view  from  the  top  of  Market  Street.  Southwark,  on  the 
right,  as  black  as  Northwood,  toppled  into  the  valley 
in  irregular  lines,  the  jaded  houses  seeming  in  Kate's 
fancy  like  cart-loads  of  gigantic  pill-boxes  cast  in  a 
hurry  from  the  counter  along  the  floor.  It  amused  her 
to  stand  gazing,  contrasting  the  reality  with  her  memo- 
ries. It  seemed  to  her  that  Southwark  had  never  before 
been  so  plain  to  the  eye.  She  could  follow  the  lines  of 
the  pavement  and  almost  distinguish  the  men  from  the 
women  passing.  A  hansom  appeared  and  disappeared; 


62  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

the  white  horse  seen  now  against  the  green  blinds  of  a 
semi-detached  villa  showed  a  moment  after  against  the 
yellow  rotundities  of  a  group  of  pottery  ovens. 

The  sun  was  now  rapidly  approaching  the  meridian, 
and  in  the  vibrating  light  the  wheels  of  the  most  distant 
collieries  could  almost  be  counted,  and  the  stems  of  the 
far-off  factory  chimneys  appeared  like  tiny  fingers. 

Kate  saw  with  the  eyes  and  heard  with  the  ears  of 
her  youth,  and  the  past  became  as  clear  as  the  landscape 
before  her.  She  remembered  the  days  when  she  came 
to  read  on  this  hillside.  The  titles  of  the  books  rose 
up  in  her  mind,  and  she  could  recall  the  sorrows  she 
felt  for  the  heroes  and  heroines.  It  seemed  to  her 
strange  that  that  time  was  so  long  past  and  she  won- 
dered why  she  had  forgotten  it.  Now  it  all  seemed  so 
near  to  her  that  she  felt  like  one  only  just  awakened 
from  a  dream.  And  these  memories  made  her  happy. 
She  took  pleasure  in  recalling  every  little  event — an 
excursion  she  made  when  she  was  quite  a  little  girl  to 
the  ruined  colliery,  and  later  on,  a  conversation  with  a 
chance  acquaintance,  a  young  man  who  had  stopped  to 
speak  to  her. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  valley,  right  before  her  eyes,  the 
white  gables  of  Bucknell  Rectory,  hidden  amid  masses 
of  trees,  glittered  now  and  then  in  an  entangled  beam 
that  flickered  between  chimneys,  across  brick-banked 
squares  of  water  darkened  by  brick  walls. 

Behind  Bucknell  were  more  desolate  plains  full  of 
pits,  brick,  and  smoke;  and  beyond  Bucknell  an  endless 
tide  of  hills  rolled  upwards  and  onwards. 

The  American  tariff  had  not  yet  come  into  operation, 
and  every  wheel  was  turning,  every  oven  baking;  and 
through  a  drifting  veil  of  smoke  the  sloping  sides  of  the 
hills  with  all  their  fields  could  be  seen  sleeping  under 
great  shadows,  or  basking  in  the  light.  A  deluge  of 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  63 

% 

rays   fell   upon   them,   defining   every   angle   of  Watley 

Rocks  and  floating  over  the  grasslands  of  Standon,  all 
shape  becoming  lost  in  a  huge  embrasure  filled  with  the 
almost  imperceptible  outlines  of  the  Wever  Hills. 

And  these  vast  slopes  which  formed  the  background 
of  every  street  were  the  theatre  of  all  Kate's  travels 
before  life's  struggles  began.  It  amused  her  to  remem- 
ber that  when  she  played  about  the  black  cinders  of  the 
hillsides  she  used  to  stop  to  watch  the  sunlight  flash 
along  the  far-away  green  spaces,  and  in  her  thoughts 
connected  them  with  the  marvels  she  read  of  in  her  books 
of  fairy-tales.  Beyond  these  wonderful  hills  were  the 
palaces  of  the  kings  and  queens  who  would  wave  their 
wands  and  vanish !  A  few  years  later  it  was  among  or 
beyond  those  slopes  that  the  lovers  with  whom  she  sym- 
pathized in  the  pages  of  her  novels  lived.  But  it  was 
a  long  time  since  she  had  read  a  story,  and  she  asked 
herself  how  this  was.  Dreams  had  gone  out  of  her  life, 
everything  was  a  hard  reality;  her  life  was  like  a  col- 
liery, every  wheel  was  turning,  no  respite  day  or  night; 
her  life  would  be  always  the  same,  a  burden  and  a  mis- 
ery. There  never  could  be  any  change  now.  She  re- 
membered her  marriage,  and  how  Mrs.  Ede  had  per- 
suaded her  into  it,  and  for  the  first  time  she  blamed  the 
old  woman  for  her  interference.  But  this  was  not  all. 
Kate  was  willing  to  admit  that  there  was  no  one  she 
loved  like  Mr.  Ede,  but  still  it  was  hard  to  live  with  a 
mother-in-law  who  had  a  finger  in  everything  and  used 
the  house  like  her  own.  It  would  be  all  very  well  if  she 
were  not  so  obstinate,  so  certain  that  she  was  always 
right.  Religion  was  very  well,  but  that  perpetual  '  I'm 
a  Christian  woman/  was  wearisome.  No  wonder  Mr. 
Lennox  was  leaving.  Poor  man,  why  shouldn't  he  have 
a  few  friends  up  in  the  evening?  The  lodgings  were 
his  own  while  he  paid  for  them.  No  wonder  he  cut  up 


64  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

rough;  no  wonder  he  was  leaving  them.  If  so,  she 
would  never  see  him  again.  The  thought  caught  her 
like  a  pain  in  the  throat,  and  with  a  sudden  instinct 
she  turned  to  hurry  home.  As  she  did  so  her  eyes  fell 
on  Mr.  Lennox  walking  towards  her.  At  such  an  unex- 
pected realization  of  her  thoughts  she  uttered  a  little 
cry  of  surprise;  but,  smiling  affably,  and  in  no  way  dis- 
concerted, he  raised  his  big  hat  from  his  head.  On  ac- 
count of  the  softness  of  the  felt  this  could  only  be 
accomplished  by  passing  the  arm  over  the  head  and  seiz- 
ing the  crown  as  a  conjuror  would  a  pocket-handker- 
chief. The  movement  was  large  and  unctuous,  and  it 
impressed  Kate  considerably. 

'  I  took  the  liberty  to  stop,  for  you  seemed  so  inter- 
ested that  I  felt  curious  to  know  what  could  be  worth 
looking  at  in  those  chimneys  and  cinder-mounds.' 

'  I  wasn't  looking  at  the  factories,  but  at  the  hills. 
The  view  from  here  is  considered  very  fine.  Don't  you 
think  so,  sir?'  she  asked,  feeling  afraid  that  she  had 
made  some  mistake. 

'  Ah,  well,  now  you  mention  it,  perhaps  it  is.  How 
far  away,  and  yet  how  distinct !  They  look  like  the  gal- 
lery of  a  theatre.  We're  on  the  stage,  the  footlights 
run  round  here,  and  the  valley  is  the  pit;  and  there  are 
plenty  of  pits  in  it,'  he  added,  laughing.  '  But  I  mustn't 
speak  to  you  of  the  theatre.' 

'  Oh,  I'm  sure  I  don't  mind !  I'm  very  fond  of  the 
theatre,'  said  Kate  hastily. 

This  indirect  allusion  to  last  night  brought  the  con- 
versation to  a  close,  and  for  some  moments  they  stood 
looking  vacantly  at  the  landscape.  Overhead  the  sky 
was  a  blue  dome,  and  so  still  was  the  air  that  the  smoke- 
clouds  trailed  like  the  wings  of  gigantic  birds  slowly 
balancing  themselves.  And  waves  of  white  light  rolled 
up  the  valleys  as  if  jealous  of  the  red,  flashing  furnaces. 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  65 

An  odour  of  iron  and  cinders  poisoned  the  air,  and  after 
some  moments  of  contemplation  which  seemed  to  draw 
them  closer  together,  Mr.  Lennox  said: 

'  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  view  is  very  grand,  but 
it  is  tantalizing  to  have  those  hills  before  your  eyes 
when  you  are  shut  up  in  a  red  brick  oven.  How  fresh 
and  cool  they  look !  What  wouldn't  you  give  to  be  stray- 
ing about  in  those  fresh  woods  far  away?' 

Kate  looked  at  Mr.  Lennox  with  ravished  eyes;  his 
words  had  flooded  her  mind  with  a  thousand  forgotten 
dreams.  She  felt  she  liked  him  better  for  what  he  had 
said,  and  she  murmured  as  if  half  ashamed: 

'  I've  never  been  out  of  Hanley.  I've  never  seen  the 
sea,  and  when  I  was  a  child  I  used  to  fancy  that  the 
fairies  lived  beyond  those  hills;  even  now  I  can't  help 
imagining  that  the  world  is  quite  different  over  there. 
Here  it  is  all  brick,  but  in  novels  they  never  speak  of 
anything  but  gardens  and  fields.' 

'  Never  seen  the  sea !  Well,  there  isn't  much  to  see 
in  it,'  Mr.  Lennox  said,  laughing  at  the  pun.  '  When 
you  were  a  little  girl  you  used  to  come  here  to  play,  I 


suppose 


'  Yes,  sir;  I  was  born  over  in  one  of  those  cottages.' 
Mr.  Lennox,  without  knowing  whether  to  look  sorry 
or  sentimental,  listened  patiently  to  Kate,  who,  proud 
of  being  able  to  show  him  anything,  drew  his  attention 
to  the  different  points  of  view.  The  white  gables  that 
could  just  be  distinguished  in  the  large  dark  masses 
of  trees  was  Bucknell  Rectory.  The  fragment  of  the 
cliff  on  the  top  of  the  highest  ridge  half-way  up  the  sky 
was  Watley  Rocks;  then  came  Western  Coyney,  the 
plains  of  Standon,  and  far  away  in  a  blue  mist  the  out- 
lines of  the  Wever  Hills.  But  Mr.  Lennox  did  not  seem 
very  much  interested;  the  sun  was  too  hot  for  him,  and 
in  the  first  pause  of  the  conversation  he  asked  Kate 


66  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

which  way  she  was  going.  He  had  to  get  on  to  the  thea- 
tre, and  he  asked  her  if  she  would  show  him  the  way 
there. 

4  You  can't  do  better  than  to  go  down  Market  Street; 
but  if  you  like  I  will  direct  you.' 

'  I  shall  be  so  glad  if  you  will ;  but  Market  Street — 
I  think  you  said  Market  Street?  That  is  just  the  way 
I've  come.' 

Market  Street  was  where  people  connected  with  the 
theatre  generally  lived,  and  Kate  knew  at  once  he  had 
been  looking  for  lodgings;  but  she  was  ashamed  to  ask 
him,  and  they  walked  on  for  some  time  without  speak- 
ing. But  every  moment  the  silence  became  more  irri- 
tating, and  at  last,  determined  to  know  the  worst,  she 
said:  '  I  suppose  you  were  looking  for  lodgings;  all  the 
theatre  people  put  up  in  that  street.' 

Mr.  Lennox  flinched  before  this  direct  question. 

'  Why,  no,  not  exactly ;  I  was  calling  on  some  friends ; 
but  as  you  say,  some  of  the  profession  live  in  the  street, 
and  now  you  mention  it,  I  suppose  I  shall  have  to  find 
some  new  diggings.' 

'  I'm  sorry,  sir,  very  sorry,'  said  Kate,  looking  up  into 
the  big  blue  eyes.  '  I  ought  not  to  have  come  down; 
you  are,  of  course,  master  in  your  own  rooms.' 

'  Oh,  it  wasn't  your  fault ;  I  could  live  with  you  for- 
ever. You  mustn't  think  I  want  to  change.  If  you 
could  only  guarantee  that  your  mother-in-law  will  keep 
out  of  my  way.' 

Kate  felt  at  that  moment  that  she  would  guarantee 
anything  that  would  prevent  Mr.  Lennox  from  leaving 
her  house. 

'  Oh,  I  don't  think  there  will  be  any  difficulty  about 
that/  she  said  eagerly.  '  I'll  bring  your  breakfast  and 
dinner  up,  and  you  are  out  nearly  all  day.' 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  67 

'  Very  well,  then,  and  I'll  promise  not  to  bring  home 
any  friends,'  he  added  gallantly. 

'  But  I'm  afraid  you'll  be  very  lonely,  sir.' 

'  I'll  have  you  to  talk  to  sometimes.' 

Kate  made  no  answer,  but  they  both  felt  that  the 
words  implied  more  than  they  actually  meant,  and  they 
remained  silent,  like  people  who  had  come  to  some  im- 
portant conclusion.  Then  after  a  long  pause,  and  with- 
out any  transition,  Mr.  Lennox  spoke  of  the  heat  of  the 
weather  and  of  the  harm  it  was  likely  to  do  their  busi- 
ness at  the  theatre.  She  asked  him  what  he  thought  of 
Hanley.  Mr.  Lennox  smiled  through  his  faint  mous- 
tache and  said  the  red  brick  hurt  his  eyes. 

Kate  did  not  feel  quite  satisfied  with  this  last  obser- 
vation, and  spoke  of  the  pretty  places  there  were  about 
the  town.  Pointing  down  a  red  perspective  backed  by 
the  usual  hills,  she  told  him  that  Trentham,  the  Duke 
of  Sutherland's  place,  was  over  there. 

'  What,  over  those  hills  ?     That  must  be  miles  away/ 

'  Oh,  not  so  far  as  that.  Hanley  doesn't  reach  to 
there.  The  country  is  beautiful,  once  you  get  past 
Stoke.  I  went  once  to  see  the  Duke's  place,  and  we  had 
tea  in  the  inn.  That  was  the  only  time  I  was  ever  really 
in  the  country,  and  even  then  we  were  never  quite  out 
of  sight  of  the  factories.  Still,  it  was  very  nice.' 

'  And  who  were  you  with  ?' 

'  Oh,  with  my  husband.' 

'  He's  an  invalid,  isn't  he?' 

'  Well,  I'm  afraid  he  suffers  very  much  at  times,  but 
he's  often  well  enough.' 

The  conversation  again  came  to  a  pause,  and  both 
thought  of  how  happy  they  would  be  were  they  taking 
tea  together  at  the  inn  at  Trentham. 

But  they  were  now  in  the  centre  of  the  town,  close 
to  the  Town  Hall,  a  stupid,  square  building  with  two 


68  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

black  cannon  on  either  side  of  the  door.  Opposite  was 
a  great  shop  with  '  Commercial  House '  written  across 
the  second  story  in  gold  letters.  Bright  carpets  and 
coarse  goods  were  piled  about  the  doorway;  and  from 
these  two  houses  Piccadilly  and  Broad  Street,"  its  con- 
tinuation, ran  down  an  incline,  and  Church  Street 
branched  off,  giving  the  town  the  appearance  of  a  two- 
pronged  fork. 

All  was  red  brick  blazing  under  a  blue  sky  without 
a  cloud  in  it ;  the  red  brick  that  turns  to  purple ;  and  all 
the  roofs  were  scarlet — red  brick  and  scarlet  tiles,  and 
not  a  tree  anywhere. 

'  You  don't  seem  to  have  a  tree  in  Hanley,'  Mr.  Len- 
nox said. 

'  I  don't  think  there  are  many,'  she  answered,  and 
they  gazed  at  the  bald  rotundities  of  the  pottery  ovens. 

He  had  never  seen  a  town  before  composed  entirely 
of  brick  and  iron.  A  town  of  work ;  a  town  in  which  the 
shrill  scream  of  the  steam  tram  as  it  rolled  solemnly 
up  the  incline  seemed  to  be  man's  cry  of  triumph  over 
vanquished  nature. 

After  looking  about  him,  Mr.  Lennox  said,  '  What  I 
object  to  in  the  town  is  that  there's  nothing  to  do.  And 
it's  so  blazing  hot;  for  goodness'  sake  let  us  get  under 
the  shadow  of  a  wall.' 

Kate  smiled,  and  as  they  crossed  over  they  both  wiped 
their  faces. 

'  There  are  the  potteries,'  she  said,  referring  to  Mr. 
Lennox's  complaint  that  there  was  nothing  to  do  in  the 
town.  '  Everybody  that  comes  to  Hanley  goes  to  see 
them ;  but  the  best  are  in  Stoke.' 

'  I'm  sure  I'm  not  going  to  Stoke  to  see  potteries,'  he 
answered  decisively,  '  but  if  there  are  any  at  Hanley  I 
dare  say  I  shall  turn  in  some  afternoon.  I've  heard 
some  of  our  people  say  they  are  worth  seeing.  But,' 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  69 

he  added,  as  if  a  sudden  thought  had  struck  him,  '  I 
might  go  now;  I've  nothing  to  do  for  the  next  couple  of 
hours.  How  far  are  the  nearest  ?  ' 

Kate  told  him  that  Powell  and  Jones's  works  were 
close  by  in  the  High  Street.  She  pointed  out  the  way, 
but,  failing  to  make  Mr.  Lennox  understand  her,  she 
consented  to  go  with  him.  He  had  a  kind,  soft  manner 
of  speaking  which  drew  Kate  towards  him  almost  as  if 
he  had  taken  her  in  his  arms,  and  it  was  astonishing 
how  intimate  they  had  grown  in  the  last  few  minutes. 

'  It  doesn't  look  very  interesting,'  he  said,  as  they 
stopped  before  an  archway  and  looked  into  a  yard  filled 
with  straw  and  packing-cases. 

'  Yes  it  is,  but  you  must  see  the  different  rooms.  You 
must  go  up  to  the  office  and  ask  for  a  permission  to  see 
the  works.' 

'  I  don't  think  I'd  care  to  go  by  myself.  Won't  you 
come  with  me?' 

Kate  hesitated;  she  had  very  little  to  do  at  home,  and 
could  say  that  Mrs.  Barnes  had  kept  her  waiting. 

'  Do  come,'  he  said  after  a  pause,  during  which  he 
looked  at  her  eagerly. 

'  Well,  I  should  like  to  see  the  room  where  my 
mother  used  to  work,  but  we  mustn't  stop  too  long.  I 
shall  be  missed  at  home/  The  matter  being  so  ar- 
ranged, they  entered  the  yard,  and  Kate  pointed  out  a 
rough  staircase  placed  against  the  wall.  '  You  must 
go  up  there;  the  office  is  at  the  top.  Ask  for  permis- 
sion to  see  the  works  and  I'll  wait  here  for  you/ 

Half  a  dozen  men  were  packing  crockery  into  crates 
with  spades,  and  as  she  watched  them  she  remembered 
that  she  used  to  come  to  this  yard  with  her  mother's 
dinner,  and  stand  wondering  how  they  could  pack  the 
delf  without  breaking  it.  She  remembered  one  after- 
noon particularly  well;  she  had  promised  to  be  very 


70  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

good,  and  had  been  allowed  to  sit  by  her  mother  and 
watch  her  painting  flowers  that  wound  in  and  out  and 
all  about  a  big  blue  vase.  She  remembered  how  she 
was  reproved  for  peeping  over  her  neighbour's  shoulder, 
and  how  proud  she  felt  sitting  among  all  the  work- 
women. She  could  recall  the  smell  of  the  paint  and  tur- 
pentine; and  her  grief  when  she  was  told  that  she  was 
too  delicate  to  learn  painting,  and  was  going  to  be  put 
out  to  dressmaking.  But  that  time  was  long  ago;  her 
mother  was  dead  and  she  was  married.  Everything  was 
changed  or  broken,  as  was  that  beautiful  vase,  prob- 
ably. It  astonished  Kate  to  find  herself  thinking  of 
these  things.  She  had  passed  the  High  Street  twenty 
times  during  the  last  six  months  without  it  even  occur- 
ring to  her  to  visit  the  old  places,  and  when  Mr.  Lennox 
came  back  he  noticed  that  there  were  tears  in  her  eyes. 
He  made  no  remark,  but  hastily  explained  that  he  had 
been  told  that  there  was  a  party  just  that  minute  gone 
on  in  front  of  them,  and  they  were  to  catch  them  up. 

'  This  way,  then,'  she  said,  pointing  to  a  big  arch- 
way. 

'  Oh,  I  can't  run ;  don't  be  in  such  a  hurry,'  said  Mr. 
Lennox,  panting. 

Kate  laughed,  and  admitted  that  the  heat  was  great. 
Out  of  a  sky  burnt  almost  to  white  the  glare  descended 
into  the  narrow  brick-yards.  The  packing  straw 
seemed  ready  to  catch  fire;  the  heaps  of  wet  clay,  which 
two  boys  were  shovelling,  smoked,  emitting  as  it  did  so 
an  unpleasant  wet  odour.  On  passing  the  archway  they 
caught  sight  of  three  black  coats  and  three  soft  hats 
like  the  one  Mr.  Lennox  wore. 

'  Oh !'  said  Kate,  stopping,  disappointed,  '  we'll  have 
to  go  round  with  those  clergymen.' 

'  What  does  that  matter?  It  will  be  amusing  to  listen 
to  them.' 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  71 

'  But  mother  knows  all  of  them/ 

'  They  must  be  strangers  in  the  town  or  they  wouldn't 
be  visiting  the  potteries,  surely/ 

'  I  hadn't  thought  of  that;  I  suppose  you're  right/ 
and  hastening  a  little,  they  overtook  the  party  that  was 
being  shown  round.  The  Dissenting  clergymen  looked 
askance  at  Mr.  Lennox,  and  as  he  showed  them  into  a 
small  white  cell  the  guide  said,  '  You're  in  plenty  of 
time,  sir;  these  are  the  snagger-makers/ 

Two  men  were  beating  a  heap  of  wet  clay  in  order 
to  insure  a  something  in  the  bakery  which  nobody  under- 
stood, but  which  the  guide  took  some  trouble  to  explain. 
The  clergymen  pressed  forward  to  listen.  Mr.  Lennox 
wiped  his  face,  and  they  were  then  hurried  into  a  sec- 
ond cell,  where  unbaked  dishes  were  piled  all  around 
upon  shelves.  It  was  said  to  be  the  dishmakers'  place, 
and  was  followed  by  another  and  another  room,  all  of 
which  Mr.  Lennox  thought  equally  hot  and  uninterest- 
ing. He  strove  to  escape  from  the  guide,  who  drew  him 
through  the  line  of  clergymen  and  made  plain  to  him 
the  mysteries  of  earthenware. 

At  last  these  preliminary  departments  were  disposed 
of,  and  they  were  led  to  another  part  of  the  works.  On 
their  way  thither  they  passed  the  ovens.  These  were 
scattered  over  the  ground  like  beehives  in  a  garden. 
Lennox  patted  their  round  sides,  approvingly  saying 
that  they  reminded  him  of  oyster  boys  in  a  pantomime, 
and  might  be  introduced  into  the  next  Christmas  show. 
Kate  looked  at  him,  her  eyes  full  of  wonder.  She  could 
not  understand  how  he  could  think  of  such  things. 

In  the  printing-room  they  listened  to  the  guide,  who 
apparently  considered  it  important  that  clergymen, 
actor,  and  dressmaker  should  understand  the  different 
processes  the  earthenware  had  to  pass  through  before 
it  was  placed  on  toilet  or  breakfast  table.  Smoking  flan- 
6 


72  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

nels  hung  on  lines  all  around,  and  like  laundresses  at 
their  tubs,  four  or  five  women  washed  the  printed  paper 
from  the  plates.  A  man  in  a  paper  cap  bent  over  a 
stove,  and  as  if  dissatisfied  with  the  guide's  explanation 
of  his  work,  broke  out  into  a  wearisome  flow  of  technical 
details.  At  the  other  end  of  this  vast  workroom  there 
was  a  line  of  young  girls  who  cut  the  printed  matter 
out  of  sheets  of  paper,  the  scissors  running  in  and  out 
of  flowers,  tendrils,  and  little  birds  without  ever  injur- 
ing one.  The  clergymen  watched  the  process,  delighted, 
while  Lennox  stepped  behind  Kate  and  whispered  that 
he  had  just  caught  the  tall  Dissenter  winking  at  the 
dark  girl  on  the  right,  which  was  not  true,  and  was  in- 
vented for  the  sake  of  the  opportunity  it  gave  him  of 
breathing  on  Kate's  neck — a  lead  up  to  the  love-scene 
which  he  had  now  decided  was  to  come  off  as  soon  as 
he  should  find  himself  alone  with  her. 

They  passed  through  a  brick  alley  with  a  staircase 
leading  to  a  platform  built  like  a  ship's  deck,  and  went 
on  through  a  series  of  rooms  till  they  came  to  a  place 
almost  as  hot  as  a  Turkish  bath,  filled  with  unbaked 
plates  and  dishes.  The  smell  of  wet  clay  drying  in 
steam  diffused  from  underneath  was  very  unpleasant, 
and  caused  one  of  the  ministers  to  cough  violently, 
whereupon  the  guide  explained  that  the  platemakers' 
departments  were  considered  the  most  unhealthy  of  any 
in  the  works;  the  people  who  worked  there,  he  said, 
usually  suffered  from  what  is  known  as  the  potter's 
asthma.  This  interested  Kate,  and  she  delayed  the 
guide  with  questions  as  to  how  the  potter's  asthma  dif- 
fered from  the  ordinary  form  of  the  disease,  and  when 
their  little  procession  was  again  put  in  motion  she  told 
Mr.  Lennox  how  her  husband  was  affected,  and  the 
nights  she  had  spent  watching  at  his  side.  But  al- 
though Lennox  listened  attentively  she  could  not  help 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  73 

thinking  that  he  seemed  rather  glad  than  otherwise  that 
her  husband  was  an  invalid.  The  unkind  way  in  which 
he  spoke  of  sick  people  shocked  her,  and  she  opposed 
the  opinion  that  a  person  in  bad  health  was  a  disgusting 
object,  while  Lennox  took  advantage  of  the  occasion  to 
whisper  into  her  ears  that  she  was  far  too  pretty  a 
woman  for  an  asthmatic  husband;  and,  encouraged  by 
her  blushes,  he  even  hazarded  a  few  coarse  jokes  anent 
the  poor  husband's  deficiencies.  How  could  a  man  kiss 
if  he  couldn't  breathe,  for  if  there  was  a  time  when 
breath  was  essential,  according  to  him,  it  was  when  four 
lips  meet. 

No  one  had  ever  spoken  to  her  in  this  way  before, 
and  had  she  known  how  to  do  so  she  would  have  re- 
sented his  familiarities.  Once  their  hands  met.  The 
contact  caused  her  a  thrill;  she  put  aside  the  unbaked 
plate  they  were  examining  and  said :  '  We'd  better  make 
haste  or  we  shall  lose  them.' 

The  next  two  rooms  were  considered  the  most  inter- 
esting they  had  been  through;  even  the  three  clergymen 
lost  something  of  their  stolid  manner  and  asked  Lennox 
regarding  the  religious  character  of  Hanley,  and  if  he 
were  of  their  persuasion. 

'  What  is  that?'  asked  Lennox,  affecting  a  comic  inno- 
cence which  he  hoped  would  tickle  Kate's  fancy. 

'  We're  Wesleyans/  said  the  minister. 

'And  I'm  an  actor;  but,  I  beg  your  pardon,  stage- 
managing's  more  my  business,'  news  that  seemed  to  cast 
a  gloom  over  the  faces  of  the  ministers;  and  leaving 
them  to  make  what  they  could  of  his  reply,  he  drew  Kate 
forward  confidentially  and  pointed  to  an  old  man  sitting 
straddle-legged  on  a  high,  narrow  table  just  on  a  line 
with  the  window.  He  was  covered  with  clay;  his  fore- 
head and  beard  were  plastered  with  it,  and  before  him 
was  an  iron  plate,  kept  continually  whirling  by  steam, 


74  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

which  he  could  stop  by  a  pressure  of  his  foot.  He 
squeezed  a  lump  of  clay  into  a  long  shape  not  unlike  a 
tall  ice,  then,  forcing  it  down  into  the  shape  of  a  batter- 
pudding,  he  hollowed  it.  Round  and  round  went  the 
clay,  the  hands  forming  it  all  the  while,  cleaning  and 
smoothing  until  it  came  out  a  true  and  perfect  jam-pot, 
even  to  the  little  furrow  round  the  top,  which  was  given 
by  a  movement  of  the  thumbs.  He  had  been  at  work 
since  seven  in  the  morning,  and  the  shelves  round  him 
were  encumbered  with  the  result  of  his  labours.  Every- 
one marvelled  at  his  dexterity,  until  he  was  forgotten 
in  the  superior  attractions  of  the  succeeding  room.  This 
was  the  turning-house,  and  Lennox  could  not  help 
laughing  outright,  so  amusing  did  the  scene  appear  to 
him.  Women  went  dancing  up  and  down  on  one  leg, 
and  at  such  regular  intervals  that  they  seemed  abso- 
lutely like  machines.  They  were  at  once  the  motive 
power  and  the  feeders  of  the  different  lathes.  It  was 
they  who  handed  the  men  lumps  of  dry  clay,  which  they 
turned  into  shapes.  The  strangeness  of  the  spectacle 
gave  rise  to  much  comment.  The  clergymen  were  anx- 
ious to  know  if  the  constant  jigging  was  injurious  to 
health.  Lennox  inquired  how  much  coin  they  made  by 
their  one-leg  dancing.  He  spoke  of  their  good  looks, 
and  this  led  him  easily  into  the  question  of  morals,  a 
subject  in  which  he  was  much  interested.  He  wanted 
to  know  if  this  crowding  together  of  the  sexes  could  be 
effected  without  danger.  Surely  cases  of  seduction  must 
occur  occasionally.  In  answering  him  the  guide  be- 
trayed a  certain  reticence  of  manner  which  encouraged 
Lennox  to  ask  him  if  he  really  meant  to  say  that  noth- 
ing ever  befell  these  young  women  who  were  working 
all  day  side  by  side  with  people  of  the  other  sex.  Did 
their  thoughts  never  wander  from  their  work?  The 
guide  assured  Mr.  Lennox  that  there  was  no  time  to 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  75 

think  of  such  nonsense  in  the  factory,  and,  anxious  to  vin- 
dicate the  honour  of  the  establishment,  he  declared  that 
any  who  took  the  smallest  liberty  with  any  female  would 
be  instantly  dismissed  from  the  works.  The  ministers 
listened  approvingly,  although  they  seemed  to  think  the 
subject  might  have  been  avoided.  Kate  felt  a  little  em- 
barrassed, and  Mr.  Lennox  watched  a  big,  blonde- 
haired  woman  who  smiled  prettily  and  seemed  quite  con- 
scious of  her  sex,  notwithstanding  the  ludicrous  bobbing 
up  and  down  position  she  was  in.  With  a  courage  that 
surprised  herself  Kate  proposed  that  they  should  go  on. 
She  was  beginning  to  feel  uneasy  at  the  time  she  had 
been  away  from  home  and  certain  that  Mrs.  Ede  would 
be  on  the  doorstep  looking  up  and  down  the  street;  and 
she  could  well  imagine  how  cross  Ralph  would  be  if  he 
heard  she  had  been  to  the  potteries  with  Mr.  Lennox. 
She  felt  very  sorry  for  the  one  and  a  little  resentful 
towards  the  other,  but  the  sentimental  desire  to  see  the 
painting-room  where  her  mother  used  to  work  prevailed, 
and  with  her  heart  full  of  recollections  she  followed  the 
party  to  the  ovens. 

Their  way  thither  led  them  around  the  building,  and 
they  passed  through  many  workrooms.  These  were  gen- 
erally clean,  airy  spaces,  with  big  rafters  and  white- 
washed walls.  Sometimes  a  bunch  of  violets,  a  book, 
or  a  newspaper  lying  on  the  table,  suggested  an  absent 
owner,  and  a  refined  countenance  was  sought  for  in  the 
different  groups  of  women.  There  was  also  a  difference 
in  the  hats  and  shawls,  and  it  was  easy  to  tell  which 
belonged  to  the  young  girls,  which  to  the  mothers  of 
families.  Everyone  looked  healthy  and  contented.  All 
were  nice-looking,  as  Lennox  continued  to  assert,  and 
all  worked  industriously  at  their  numberless  employ- 
ments, one  of  the  most  curious  of  which  consisted  in 
knocking  the  roughness  off  the  finished  earthenware. 


76  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

A  dozen  women  sat  in  a  circle;  above  them  and 
around  them  were  piles  of  dinner-services  of  all  kinds. 
Each  held  with  one  hand  a  piece  of  crockery  on  her 
knees,  whilst  with  a  chisel  she  chopped  away  at  it  as  if 
it  could  not  by  any  possibility  be  broken.  As  may  easily 
be  imagined,  the  noise  in  this  warehouse  was  bewilder- 
ing. 

Through  this  room  and  others,  up  and  down  many 
narrow  staircases,  the  visiting  party  went,  the  guide 
leading,  the  three  black  clergymen  following,  Kate  lin- 
gering behind  with  Mr.  Lennox  until  they  came  to  the 
ovens.  The  entrance  was  from  an  immense  corridor, 
prolonged  by  shadow  and  divided  down  the  middle  by 
presses  full  of  drying  earthenware,  the  smell  of  which 
was  not,  however,  as  strong  as  in  the  platemakers'  place, 
and  the  difference  was  noticed  by  the  clergyman  with 
the  cough.  He  said  he  was  not  affected  to  nearly  the 
same  extent. 

From  time  to  time  the  visitors  had  to  give  way  to 
men  who  marched  in  single  file  carrying  what  seemed 
to  be  huge  cheeses,  but  the  guide  explained  that  within 
these  were  cups,  saucers,  bowls,  and  basins,  and  men 
mounted  on  ladders  piled  these  yellow  tubs  up  the  walls 
of  the  ovens.  When  the  visitors  had  peeped  into  the 
huge  interior,  they  were  conducted  to  the  furnaces;  and 
these  were  set  in  the  oven's  inner  shell,  which  made  a 
narrow  circular  passage  slanting  inwards  as  it  ascended 
like  the  neck  of  a  champagne  bottle.  The  fires  glared 
so  furiously  that  they  suggested  many  impious  thoughts 
to  Lennox,  and  he  proposed  to  ask  the  ministers  if  there 
were  any  warmer  corners  in  hell,  and  was  with  difficulty 
dissuaded  by  Kate,  about  whose  waist  he  had  passed  his 
arm.  His  constant  whispering  in  her  ear,  which  had 
at  first  amused  her,  now  irritated  and  annoyed  her; 
other  emotions  filled  her  mind  with  a  vague  tumult,  and 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  77 

she  longed  to  be  left  to  think  in  peace.  She  begged  of 
him  to  keep  quiet,  and  as  they  crossed  one  of  the  yards 
she  asked  the  guide  if  he  could  not  go  straight  to  the 
painting-room.  He  replied  that  there  was  a  regular 
order  to  be  observed,  and  insisted  on  marching  them 
through  two  more  rooms,  and  explaining  fully  three  or 
four  more  processes.  Then,  after  begging  them  to  be 
careful  and  to  hold  the  rail,  he  led  them  up  a  high  stair- 
case. The  warning  caused  Kate  a  thrill,  for  she  remem- 
bered that  every  step  of  this  staircase  had  been  a  terror 
to  her  mother. 

The  room  itself  proved  a  little  disappointing.  The 
tables  were  not  arranged  in  quite  the  same  way,  and 
these  alterations  deprived  her  of  the  emotions  she  had 
expected.  Still  it  gave  her  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  to 
point  out  to  Mr.  Lennox  where  her  mother  used  to  work. 

But  to  find  the  exact  spot  was  not  by  any  means  easy. 
There  were  upwards  of  a  hundred  young  women  sitting 
on  benches,  leaning  over  huge  tables  covered  with  unfin- 
ished pottery.  Each  held  in  her  hand  a  plate,  bowl, 
or  vase,  on  which  she  executed  some  design.  The  clergy 
showed  more  interest  than  they  had  hitherto  done,  and 
as  they  leaned  to  and  fro  examining  the  work,  one  of 
them  discovered  the  something  Guardian,  a  Wesleyan 
organ,  on  one  of  the  tables,  and  hailing  his  fellows,  they 
began  to  interview  the  proprietor.  But  the  guide  said 
they  had  to  visit  the  store-rooms,  and  forced  them  away 
from  their  '  lamb.' 

Ridges  of  vases,  mounds  of  basins  and  jugs,  terraces 
of  plates,  formed  masses  of  sickly  white,  through  which 
rays  of  light  were  caught  and  sent  dancing.  Along  the 
wall  on  the  left-hand  side  presses  were  overcharged  with 
dusty  tea-services.  On  the  right  were  square  grey  win- 
dows, under  which  the  convex  side  of  salad-bowls  spar- 
kled in  the  sun;  and  from  rafter  to  rafter,  in  garlands 


78  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

and  clusters  like  grapes,  hung  gilded  mugs  bearing  de- 
vices suitable  for  children,  and  down  the  middle  of  the 
floor  a  terrace  was  built  of  dinner-plates. 

Two  rooms  away,  a  large  mound  of  chamber-pots 
formed  an  astonishing  background,  and  against  all  this 
white  and  grey  effacement  the  men  who  stood  on  high 
ladders  dusting  the  crockery  came  out  like  strange  black 
climbing  insects. 

The  clergyman  said  it  was  very  interesting,  and  just 
as  he  did  everything  else,  the  guide  explained  the  sys- 
tem of  storing  employed  by  the  firm;  how  the  crockery 
was  packed,  and  how  the  men  would  soon  be  working 
only  three  days  a  week  on  account  of  the  American 
tariff.  But  he  was  not  much  listened  to.  Everyone  was 
now  tired,  and  the  clergymen,  who,  since  the  discovery 
of  the  newspaper,  had  been  showing  signs  that  they  re- 
garded their  visit  to  the  potteries  as  ended,  pulled  out 
their  watches  and  whispered  that  their  time  was  up. 
The  guide  told  them  that  there  were  only  a  few  more 
rooms  to  visit,  but  they  said  that  they  must  be  off,  and 
demanded  to  be  conducted  to  the  door.  This  request 
was  an  embarrassing  one;  it  was  against  the  rules  ever 
to  leave  visitors  when  going  the  rounds.  The  guide  had, 
therefore,  either  to  conduct  the  whole  party  to  the  door 
or  transgress  his  orders.  After  a  slight  hesitation,  in- 
fluenced no  doubt  by  a  conversation  he  had  had  with 
Lennox,  in  which  mention  was  made  of  tickets  for  the 
theatre,  he  decided  to  take  the  responsibility  on  himself, 
and  asked  that  gentleman  if  he  would  mind  waiting  a 
few  minutes  with  his  lady  while  the  religious  gentlemen 
were  being  shown  the  way  out.  Lennox  assented  with 
readiness,  and  the  three  black  figures  and  the  guide  dis- 
appeared a  moment  after  behind  the  bedroom  utensils. 
After  an  anxious  glance  round  Lennox  looked  at  Kate, 
who,  at  that  moment,  was  gathering  to  herself  all  the 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  79 

recollections  that  the  place  evoked.  She  knew  the  room 
she  was  in  well,  for  she  used  to  pass  through  it  daily 
with  her  mother's  dinner,  and  she  remembered  how  in 
her  childhood  she  wondered  how  big  the  world  must  be 
to  hold  enough  people  to  use  such  thousands  of  cups 
and  saucers.  There  used  to  be  a  blue  tea-service  in  the 
far  corner,  and  she  had  often  lingered  to  imagine  a  suit- 
able parlour  for  it  and  for  her  dream  husband.  One 
day  she  had  torn  her  frock  coming  up  the  stairs,  and 
was  terribly  scolded;  another  time  Mr.  Powell,  attracted 
by  her  black  curls,  had  stopped  to  speak  to  her,  and  he 
had  given  her  as  a  present  one  of  the  children's  mugs 
— one  exactly  like  those  hanging  over  her  head.  She 
had  treasured  it  a  long  time,  but  at  last  it  was  broken. 
It  seemed  that  all  things  belonging  to  her  had  to  be 
broken;  her  dreams  were  made  in  crockery. 

But  as  Kate  looked  into  the  past  she  became  gradu- 
ally conscious  of  a  voice  whispering  to  her. 

'  How  odd  it  is  that  you  should  never  have  thought 
of  revisiting  this  place  until  you  met  me.' 

She  raised  her  eyes,  and,  her  look  seeming  to  tell  him 
that  this  was  the  moment,  he  turned  to  see  if  they  were 
watched.  At  their  feet  a  pile  of  plates  and  teacups 
slept  in  a  broad  flood  of  sunlight,  and  three  rooms  away 
the  boys  on  high  ladders  dusted  the  mugs. 

'  What  a  pretty  child  you  must  have  been !  I  can 
fancy  you  with  your  black  hair  falling  about  your  shoul- 
ders. Had  I  known  you  then  I  should  have  taken  you 
in  my  arms  and  kissed  you.  Do  you  think  you  would 
have  liked  me  to  have  kissed  you?' 

She  raised  her  eyes  again,  and  a  vague  feeling  of  how 
nice,  how  kind  he  was,  rushed  through  her,  and  per- 
ceiving still  more  clearly  that  this  moment  was  his  mo- 
ment, Lennox  affected  to  examine  a  ring  on  her  finger. 
The  warm  pressure  of  his  hand  caused  her  to  start,  and 


80  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

she  would  have  put  him  from  her,  but  his  voice  calmed 
her. 

'Ah ! '  he  said,  '  had  I  known  you  then,  I  should  have 
been  in  love  with  you. 

Kate  closed  her  eyes,  and  abandoned  herself  to  an 
ineffable  sentiment  of  weakness,  of  ravishment;  and 
then,  imagining  that  she  was  his,  Lennox  took  her  in  his 
arms  and  kissed  her  rudely.  But  quick,  angry  thoughts 
rushed  to  her  head  at  the  first  movement  of  his  arms, 
and  obeying  an  impulse  in  contradiction  to  her  desire, 
she  shook  herself  free,  and  looked  at  him  vexed  and 
humiliated. 

'  Oh,  how  very  cross  we  are ;  and  about  a  kiss,  j  ust  a 
tiny,  wee  kiss!' 

She  stood  staring  at  him,  only  half  hearing  what  he 
said,  irritated  against  him  and  herself. 

'  I'm  sure  I  didn't  mean  to  offend  you,'  he  continued 
after  a  pause,  for  Kate's  manner  puzzled  him ;  '  I  love 
you  too  well.' 

'  Love  me  ?'  she  cried,  astonished,  but  with  neverthe- 
less a  tone  of  interrogation  in  her  voice.  '  Why,  you 
never  saw  me  till  the  other  day.' 

'  I  loved  you  the  first  moment;  I  assure  you  I  did.' 

Kate  looked  at  him  imploringly,  as  if  beseeching  him 
not  to  deceive  her.  There  was  an  honest  frankness  in 
his  big  blue  eyes,  and  his  face  said  as  clearly  as  words, 
'  I  think  you  a  deuced  pretty  woman,  and  I'm  sure  I 
could  love  you  very  much,'  and  recognizing  this,  Kate 
remained  silent. 

And  thus  encouraged,  Mr.  Lennox  attempted  to  re- 
new his  intentions.  But  actions  have  to  be  prefaced  by 
words,  and  he  commenced  by  declaring  that  when  a  man 
would  give  the  whole  world  for  a  kiss,  it  was  not  to  be 
expected  that  he  would  resist  trying  for  one,  and  he 
strove  to  think  of  the  famous  love  scene  in  The  Lady  of 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  81 

Lyons.  But  it  was  years  since  he  had  played  the  part, 
and  he  could  only  murmur  something  about  reading  no 
books  but  lovers'  books,  singing  no  songs  but  lovers' 
songs.  The  guide  would  be  back  in  a  few  minutes,  and, 
inspired  by  Kate's  pale  face,  he  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  it  would  be  absurd  to  let  her  go  without  kissing  her 
properly. 

He  was  a  strong  man,  but  Kate  had  now  really  lost 
her  temper,  and  struggled  vigorously,  determined  he 
should  not  gain  his  end.  Three  times  his  lips  had  rested 
on  her  cheek,  once  he  managed  to  kiss  her  on  the  chin, 
but  he  could  not  reach  her  mouth:  she  always  succeeded 
in  twisting  her  face  away,  and  not  liking  to  be  beaten 
he  put  forth  all  his  strength.  She  staggered  backwards 
and  placed  one  hand  on  his  throat,  and  with  the  other 
strove  to  catch  at  his  moustache;  she  had  given  it  a 
wrench  that  had  brought  tears  into  his  eyes,  but  now  he 
was  pinioning  her;  she  could  see  his  big  face  approach- 
ing, and  summoning  up  all  her  strength  she  strove  to 
get  away,  but  that  moment,  happening  to  tread  on  her 
skirt,  her  feet  slipped.  He  made  a  desperate  effort  to 
sustain  her,  but  her  legs  had  gone  between  his. 

The  crash  was  tremendous.  A  pile  of  plates  three 
feet  high  was  sent  spinning,  a  row  of  salad-bowls  was 
over,  and  then  with  a  heavy  stagger  Mr.  Lennox  went 
down  into  a  dinner-service,  sending  the  soup-tureen  roll- 
ing gravely  into  the  next  room. 

A  feeling  at  first  prevailed  that  some  serious  accident 
had  happened,  but  when  Kate  rose,  pale  and  trembling, 
from  the  litter  of  a  bedroom  set,  and  Lennox  was  lifted 
out  of  the  dinner  service  with  nothing  apparently  worse 
than  a  cut  hand,  a  murmur  of  voices  asking  the  cause 
of  the  disaster  was  heard.  But  before  a  word  could  be 
said  the  guide  came  running  towards  them.  He  declared 
that  he  would  lose  his  place,  and  spoke  vaguely  to  those 


82  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

around  him  of  the  necessity  of  suppressing  the  fact  that 
he  had  left  visitors  alone  in  the  store-rooms. 

Lennox,  on  the  other  hand,  was  very  silent.  He  had 
evidently  received  some  bad  cuts,  of  which  he  did  not 
speak.  He  put  his  hand  to  his  legs  and  felt  them 
doubtfully.  There  was  a  large  gash  in  his  right  hand, 
from  which  he  picked  a  piece  of  delf,  and  as  he  tied  the 
wound  up  with  a  pocket-handkerchief  he  partly  quieted 
the  expostulating  guide  by  assuring  him  that  everything 
would  be  paid  for.  And  taking  Kate's  arm,  he  hobbled 
out  of  the  place. 

The  suddenness  and  excitement  of  the  accident  had 
for  the  moment  quenched  her  angry  feelings,  and,  over- 
whelmed with  pity  for  the  poor  wounded  hand,  she 
thought  of  nothing  but  getting  him  to  a  doctor.  Indeed, 
it  was  not  until  she  heard  him  telling  Mr.  Powell  in  the 
office  that  he  was  subject  to  fits,  and  that  in  striving  to 
hold  him  up  the  lady  had  fallen  too,  that  she  remem- 
bered how  he  had  behaved,  how  he  had  disgraced  her. 
But  her  mouth  was  closed,  and  she  listened  in  amaze- 
ment to  him  as  he  invented  detail  after  detail  with  sur- 
prising dexterity.  He  did  not  even  hesitate  to  call  in 
the  evidence  of  the  guide,  who,  in  his  own  interests,  was 
obliged  to  assent;  and  when  Mr.  Powell  inquired  after 
the  three  clergymen,  Mr.  Lennox  said  that  they  had 
left  them  in  the  yard  after  visiting  the  ovens. 

Mr.  Powell  listened  with  a  look  of  pity  on  his  face, 
and  began  to  tell  of  a  poor  brother  of  his  who  was  like- 
wise subject  to  fits,  and,  possibly  influenced  by  the  re- 
membrance, refused  to  receive  any  remuneration  for  the 
broken  crockery,  saying  that  to  a  firm  like  theirs  a  few 
plates  more  or  less  was  of  no  importance. 

And  this  matter  being  settled,  Lennox  hobbled  away, 
leaving  a  little  pool  of  blood  on  the  floor  of  the  office. 
She  had  to  lend  him  her  handkerchief,  his  was  now 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  83 

saturated — to  tie  round  his  hand:  he  confessed  to  a  bad 
cut  in  the  leg,  saying  he  could  feel  the  blood  trickling 
down  into  his  boot,  but  did  not  think  he  needed  a  doc- 
tor. '  A  bit  of  sticking  plaster,  dear ;  I'll  get  some  at 
the  apothecary's.  Which  is  the  way?' 

'  Take  the  first  turn  to  the  right,  and  you're  in  Church 
Street;  but  there  may  be  bits  of  the  delf  in  the  wound?' 

'  I  shall  see  to  that.  But  how  strong  you  are ;  you're 
like  a  lion.  You  mustn't  struggle  like  that  next  time.' 

At  the  suggestion  that  there  was  going  to  be  a  next 
time  Kate's  face  clouded,  but  she  was  so  alarmed  for  his 
safety  that  it  was  only  for  a  moment.  She  had  hardly 
noticed  that  he  called  her  '  dear ' ;  he  used  the  word  so 
naturally  and  simply  that  it  touched  her  with  swift 
pleasure,  and  was  as  soon  lost  in  a  crowd  of  conflicting 
emotions. 

The  man  was  coarse  and  largely  sensual,  but  each 
movement  of  his  fat  hands  was  protective,  every  word 
he  uttered  was  kind,  the  very  intonation  of  his  voice  was 
comforting.  He  was,  in  a  word,  human,  and  this  at- 
tracted all  that  was  human  in  her. 


ON  leaving  Mr.  Lennox  Kate  walked  slowly  along  the 
streets,  recalling  every  word  he  had  said,  feeling  his 
breath  upon  her  cheek  and  his  blue  eyes  looking  into 
hers  more  distinctly  in  recollection  than  when  he  had 
held  her  in  his  arms.  She  walked  immersed  in  recol- 
lections, everyone  clear  and  precise,  experiencing  a  sort 
of  super-sensual  gratification,  one  she  had  never  known 
before.  Being  a  chili  of  the  people,  his  violence  had 
not  impressed  her,  and  she  murmured  to  herself  every 
now  and  then: 

'  Poor  fellow,  what  a  fall  he  had !  I  hope  he  didn't 
hurt  himself.' 

By  turns  she  thought  of  things  totally  different — of 
Hender,  of  the  little  girls,  who  would  regret  her  ab- 
sence from  the  workroom,  and  it  was  not  without  sur- 
prise that  she  caught  herself  wishing  suddenly  they 
were  her  own  children.  The  wish  was  only  momentary, 
but  it  was  the  first  time  a  desire  for  motherhood  had 
ever  troubled  her. 

It  amused  her  to  think  of  their  smiling  faces,  and  to 
make  sure  of  their  smiles  she  entered  a  shop  and  bought 
a  small  packet  of  sweetstuff,  and  with  the  paper  in  her 
hand  continued  her  walk  home.  The  cheap  prints  in  a 
newspaper  shop  delayed  her,  and  the  workmen  who 
were  tearing  up  the  road  forced  her  to  consider  how  a 

84 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  85 

suspension  of  traffic  would  interfere  with  her  business. 
She  was  now  in  Broad  Street,  and  when  she  raised  her 
eyes  she  saw  her  own  house.  A  new  building,  high  and 
narrow,  it  stood  in  the  main  street  at  the  corner  of  a  lane, 
the  ground-floor  windows  filled  with  light  goods,  and 
underneath  them  black  hats  trimmed  with  wings  and 
tails  of  birds.  There  were  also  children's  dresses,  and 
a  few  neckties  trimmed  with  white  lace. 

As  she  entered  the  shop  Mrs.  Ede,  who  was  in  the 
front  kitchen,  cried,  '  Well,  is  that  you,  Kate  ?  Where 
have  you  been?  I  waited  dinner  an  hour  for  you;  and 
how  tired  you  look!' 

In  her  present  state  of  mind  Mrs.  Ede  was  the  last 
person  Kate  cared  to  meet. 

'  What's  the  matter,  my  dear ;  aren't  you  well  ?  Shall 
I  get  you  a  glass  of  water?' 

'Oh,  no,  mother;  I'm  all  right.  Can't  you  see  that 
I'm  only  very  hot?' 

'  But  where  have  you  been  ?  I  waited  dinner  an  hour 
for  you.  It's  past  two  o'clock!' 

Kate  did  not  know  how  to  account  for  her  absence 
from  home,  but  after  a  pause  she  answered,  thinking 
of  Mr.  Lennox  as  she  spoke,  '  Mrs.  Barnes  kept  .me 
waiting  above  an  hour  trying  her  dress  on,  and  then 
I  was  so  done  up  with  night-watching  and 'sewing  that 
I  thought  I'd  go  for  a  walk,'  and  after  wiping  her  weary 
hot  face  she  asked  her  mother-in-law  if  many  people  had 
been  in  the  shop  that  morning. 

'  Well,  yes,  half  a  dozen  or  more,'  Mrs.  Ede  an- 
swered, and  began  to  recount  the  different  events  of 
the  morning.  Mrs.  White  had  bought  one  of  the 
aprons;  she  said  she  hadn't  seen  the  pattern  before;  a 
stranger  had  taken  another;  and  Miss  Sargent  had 
called  and  wanted  to  know  how  much  it  would  cost  to 
remake  her  blue  dress. 


86  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  Oh,  I  know ;  she  wants  me  to  reline  the  skirt  and 
put  new  trimming  on  the  bodice  for  seven  and  sixpence; 
we  can  do  without  her  custom.  What  then?' 

'  And  then — ah !  I  was  forgetting — Mrs.  West  came 
in  to  tell  us  that  her  friend  Mrs.  Wood,  the  bookseller's 
wife,  you  know,  up  the  street,  was  going  to  be  confined, 
and  would  want  some  baby-linen,  and  she  recommended 
her  here.' 

'  Did  you  see  nobody  else  ?' 

'  Well,  yes,  a  young  man  who  bought  half  a  dozen 
pocket-handkerchiefs;  I  let  him  have  the  half-dozen  for 
four  shillings;  and  I  sold  a  pink  necktie  to  one  of  the 
factory  hands  over  the  way.' 

'  Why,  mother,  you've  done  a  deal  of  business  and 
I'm  glad  about  the  baby-linen.  We've  a  lot  in  stock, 
and  it  hasn't  gone  off  well.  I  don't  know  Mrs.  Wood, 
but  it's  very  kind  of  Mrs.  West  to  recommend  us;  and 
how  has  Render  been  getting  on  with  the  skirt?' 

'  Well,  I  must  say  she  has  been  working  very  well ; 
she  was  here  at  half-past  eight,  and  she  did  not  stop 
away  above  three-quarters  of  an  hour  for  dinner.' 

'  I'm  glad  of  that,  for  I  was  never  so  backward  in  my 
life  with  my  work,  what  with  Ralph  being  ill  and 
Mr. ' 

Kate  tried  here  to  stop  herself.  The  conversation  had 
so  far  been  an  agreeable  one,  and  she  did  not  wish  to 
spoil  it  by  alluding  to  a  subject  on  which  there  was  no 
likelihood  of  their  agreeing.  But  her  mother-in-law, 
guessing  that  Kate  was  thinking  of  the  mummer,  said, 
'  Yes,  I  wanted  to  talk  to  you  about  that.  He  hasn't 
sent  anyone  to  take  away  his  things,  and  he  didn't  even 
speak  when  I  took  him  up  his  breakfast  this  morning.' 

'  I  don't  think  Mr.  Lennox  is  leaving  us,'  she  an- 
swered, after  a  pause.  '  I  thought  it  was  settled  last 
night  that  he  was  to  be  told  that  he  mustn't  bring 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  87 

friends  home  after  eleven  o'clock  at  night.  When  I  see 
him  I'll  speak  to  him  about  it.' 

'  The  house  is  yours,  deary.  If  you're  satisfied,  I  am/ 
And  Kate  walked  into  the  kitchen,  and  when  she  had 
finished  her  dinner  she  went  upstairs  to  see  Ralph, 
whom  Mrs.  Ede  declared  to  be  much  better.  On  pass- 
ing the  workroom  the  door  opened  suddenly  and  the 
bright  faces  of  the  little  girls  darted  out. 

'  Oh,  is  that  you,  Mrs.  Ede?  How  we've  missed  you 
all  the  morning!'  Annie  cried. 

'  And  Miss  Render  has  been  so  busy  that  she  had  to 
get  me  to  help  her  with  the  skirt,  and  I  did  a  great  long 
piece  myself  without  a  mistake.  Didn't  I,  Miss  Hen- 
der?' 

'  I'm  going  to  see  my  husband/  said  Kate,  smiling; 
'  but  I  shall  be  down  presently,  and  I've  bought  some- 
thing for  you.' 

'  Oh,  what  is  it  ?'  cried  Annie  excitedly. 

'  You  shall  see  presently.' 

Ralph  was  lying  still  in  bed,  propped  up  in  his  usual 
attitude,  with  his  legs  tucked  under  him. 

'  Don't  you  think  we  might  open  something  ?'  she  said, 
as  she  sat  down  by  the  bedside ;  '  and  your  sheets  want 
changing.' 

'  Oh,  if  you've  only  come  in  to  turn  everything  upside- 
down,  you  might  as  well  have  stayed  away.'  He  spoke 
with  difficulty,  in  a  thin  wheeze. 

'  I  think  the  pills  did  me  good  last  night/  he  said 
after  a  pause;  and  then  added,  laughing  as  much  as  his 
breath  would  allow  him,  '  and  what  a  rage  mother  was 
in!  But  tell  me,  what  were  they  doing  downstairs? 
Were  there  any  ladies  there?  I  was  too  bad  to  think  of 
anything.' 

'  Yes,  some  of  the  ladies  from  the  theatre/  Kate  an- 
7 


88  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

swered.     '  But  I  don't  think  mother  had  a  right  to  kick 
up  all  the  row  she  did.' 

'  And  it  just  came  in  upon  her  prayers/  Ralph  re- 
plied, smiling. 

Although  crossgrained,  Mr.  Ede  was  not  always  an 
unpleasant  man,  and  often  in  sudden  flashes  of  affec- 
tion the  kind  heart  of  his  mother  was  recognizable  in 
him. 

'  You  mustn't  laugh,  Ralph/  said  Kate,  looking  aside, 
for  the  comic  side  of  the  question  had  suddenly  dawned 
upon  her. 

But  their  hilarity  was  not  of  long  endurance.  Ralph 
was  seized  with  a  fit  of  coughing,  and  when  this  was 
over  he  lay  back  exhausted.  At  last  he  said: 

'  But  where  have  you  been  all  the  day  ?  We've  been 
wondering  what  had  become  of  you.' 

The  question,  although  not  put  unkindly,  annoyed 
Kate.  '  One  would  think  I'd  come  back  from  a  long 
journey/  she  said  to  herself.  '  It's  just  as  Hender  says; 
if  I'm  out  half  an  hour  more  than  my  time  everyone  is, 
as  they  say,  "  wondering  what  has  become  of  me." ' 
Assuming  an  air  of  indifference,  she  told  him  that  Mrs. 
Barnes  kept  her  a  long  time,  and  that  she  went  for  a 
walk  afterwards. 

'  I'm  glad  of  that/  he  said.  '  You  wanted  a  walk 
after  being  shut  up  with  me  three  nights  running.  And 
what  a  time  you  must  have  had  of  it !  But  tell  me  what 
you've  been  doing  in  the  shop.' 

She  told  him  that  '  mother '  had  sold  all  the  aprons, 
and  he  said :  '  I  knew  they'd  sell.  I  told  you  so, 
didn't  I  ?' 

'  You  did,  dear/  said  Kate,  seeking  to  satisfy  him ; 
'  but  you  mustn't  talk  so  much ;  you'll  make  yourself 
bad  again.' 

'  But  are  you  going?' 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  89 

'  I've  been  out  so  long  that  I've  a  lot  to  do;  but  I'll 
come  back  and  see  you  in  the  evening.' 

'  Well,  then,  kiss  me  before  you  go.' 

As  she  kissed  him,  she  remembered  the  struggle  in 
the  potteries,  and  it  appeared  strange  to  her  that  she 
should  now  be  giving  as  a  matter  of  course  what  she  had 
refused  an  hour  ago.  She  had  always  complied  with  the 
ordinances  of  the  marriage  state  without  passion  or  re- 
volt, but  now  it  disgusted  her  to  kiss  her  husband,  and 
as  she  stepped  into  the  passage  she  almost  walked  into 
Mr.  Lennox's  room,  unconsciously,  without  knowing 
what  she  was  doing,  beguiled  by  the  natural  sentiment 
that  a  woman  feels  in  the  room  of  a  man  she  is  inter- 
ested in.  Hoping  that  Mrs.  Ede  had  not  yet  set  every- 
thing straight,  she  went  in  to  make  sure.  Slippers  and 
boots  lay  about;  the  portmanteau  yawned  wide  open, 
with  some  soiled  shirts  on  the  top;  a  pair  of  trousers 
trailed  from  a  chair  on  the  floor.  Annoyed  at  the 
mother's  negligence,  Kate  hung  the  trousers  on  the  door, 
placed  the  slippers  tidily  by  his  bedside,  and  put  away 
the  soiled  linen.  But  in  doing  so  she  could  not  refrain 
from  glancing  at  the  contents  of  the  portmanteau.  She 
saw  many  of  the  traces  which  follow  those  who  frequent 
women's  society.  The  duchess  works  a  pair  of  slippers 
for/  her  lover,  and  the  chorus-girl  does  the  same.  The 
merchant's  wife,  as  she  holds  the  loved  hand  under  the 
ledge  of  her  box  at  the  theatre,  clasps  the  ring  she  had 
given;  the  rich  widow  opposite  has  a  jewel-case  in  her 
pocket  which  will  presently  be  sent  round  to  the  stage- 
door  for  the  tenor,  who  is  now  thinking  of  his  high  B 
flat. 

Under  the  shirts  Kate  found  a  pair  of  slippers,  a  pin- 
cushion, and  the  inevitable  ring.  But  there  were  other 
presents  more  characteristic  of  the  man:  there  was  a 
bracelet,  a  scent-bottle,  and  two  pots  of  pate  de  foie 


90  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

gras  wrapped  up  in  a  lace-trimmed  chemise.  Kate  ex- 
amined everything,  but  without  being  able  to  adduce 
any  conclusion  beyond  a  vague  surmise  that  Lennox 
lived  in  a  different  world  from  hers.  The  foie  gras  sug- 
gested delicacy  of  living,  the  chemise  immorality,  the 
bottle  of  scent  refinement  of  taste;  the  bracelet  she 
could  make  nothing  of.  Prosaic  and  vulgar  as  were  all 
these  articles,  in  the  dressmaker's  imagination  they  be- 
came both  poetized  and  purified.  An  infinite  sadness, 
that  she  could  not  explain,  rose  up  through  her  mind, 
and,  staring  vaguely  at  the  pious  exhortation  hung  on 
the  wall — '  Thou  art  my  will,  Thou  art  my  hope  ' — she 
thought  of  Mr.  Lennox's  wounded  legs  and  asked  her- 
self if  his  bed  were  soft,  and  if  she  could  do  anything  to 
make  him  more  comfortable.  It  vexed  her  to  see  that 
he  had  chosen  to  use  the  basin-stand  made  out  of  a  tri- 
angular board  set  in  a  corner  instead  of  the  proper  one, 
where  she  had  hung  two  clean  towels ;  and  it  was  not 
until  she  remembered  the  little  girls  that  she  was  able 
to  tear  herself  away. 

'  What  have  you  got  for  us  ?'  said  four  red  lips  as 
Kate  entered. 

'  Oh,  you  must  guess,'  she  replied,  taking  a  chair,  and 
bidding  Miss  Render  good-morning. 

'  An  apple  ?'  cried  Annie. 

'No.' 

'An  orange?'  cried  Lizzie. 

Kate  shook  her  head,  and  at  the  sight  of  their  bright 
looks  she  felt  her  spirits  return  to  her. 

'  No,  it  is  sweetstuff.' 

'  Brandy  balls  ?' 

'No.' 

'Toffee?' 

'  Yes ;  Annie  has  guessed  right,'  said  Kate,  as  she 
divided  the  toffee  equally  between  the  two. 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  91 

'  And  do  I  get  nothing  for  guessing  right?'  said  Annie 
doubtfully. 

'  Oh,  for  shame,  Annie !  I  didn't  think  you  were 
greedy !' 

'  I  think  I  ought  to  have  the  most/  replied  Lizzie  in 
self-defence.  '  Had  it  not  been  for  me  Miss  Render 
would  never  have  got  through  her  skirt.  I  helped  you 
famously,  didn't  I,  Miss  Hender?' 

The  assistant  nodded  an  impatient  assent  and  gazed 
at  her  mistress  curiously.  But  while  the  children  were 
present,  she  could  only  watch  her  employer's  face,  and 
strive  to  read  it. 

And  unconscious  of  the  scrutiny,  Kate  sat  idly  talk- 
ing of  the  skirt  that  was  finished.  The  clicking  of  the 
needles  sounded  as  music  in  her  ears,  and  she  abandoned 
herself  to  all  sorts  of  soft  and  floating  reveries.  Not 
for  years  had  she  known  what  it  was  to  take  her  fill  of 
rest;  and  her  thoughts  swayed,  now  on  one  side  and 
then  on  the  other,  as  voluptuously  as  flowers,  and  hid 
themselves  in  the  luxurious  current  of  idleness  which 
lapped  loosely  around  her. 

The  afternoon  passed  delightfully,  full  of  ease  and 
pleasant  quiet,  Hender  telling  them  how  Les  Cloches 
had  gone  the  night  before:  of  Miss  Leslie's  spirited 
singing,  of  the  cider  song,  of  Joe  Mortimer's  splendid 
miser  scene,  of  Bret's  success  in  the  barcarole.  So 
eagerly  did  she  speak  of  them  that  one  would  have 
thought  she  herself  had  received  the  applause  she  de- 
scribed. Kate  listened  dreamily,  and  the  little  girls 
sucked  toffee,  staring  the  while  with  interested  eyes. 


VI 


BUT  Kate  could  not  manage  to  see  Mr.  Lennox  that 
evening  or  the  next.  He  came  in  very  late,  and  was 
away  before  she  was  down.  She  tormented  herself  try- 
ing to  find  reasons  for  his  absence,  and  it  pained  her  to 
think  that  it  might  be  because  the  breakfasts  were  not 
to  his  taste.  It  seemed  strange  to  her,  too,  that  when 
a  man  cared  to  walk  about  the  potteries  with  a  woman, 
and  talked  as  nicely  as  he  had  done  to  her,  that  he 
should  not  take  the  trouble  to  come  and  see  her,  if  only 
to  say  good-morning;  and  in  a  thousand  different  ways 
did  these  thoughts  turn  and  twist  in  Kate's  brain,  as  she 
sat  sewing  opposite  Hender  in  the  workroom.  This 
young  woman  had  made  up  her  mind  that  there  was 
something  between  the  stage-manager  and  her  employer, 
and  it  irritated  her  when  Kate  said  she  had  not  seen 
him  for  the  last  two  days.  Kate  was  not  very  successful 
either  in  extracting  theatrical  news  from  Hender.  '  If 
she's  going  to  be  close  with  me,  I'll  show  her  that  two 
can  play  at  that  game/  and  she  answered  that  she  had 
not  noticed  any  limp.  But  Mrs.  Ede  told  Kate  he 
limped  so  badly  that  she  felt  sure  he  must  have  met 
with  an  accident.  Which  was  she  to  believe?  Mother, 
of  course,  but  feeling  that  only  direct  news  of  him 
would  satisfy  her,  she  waited  next  morning  in  the 
kitchen.  But  the  trick  was  not  successful;  she  was 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  93 

/ 

serving  in  the  shop,  and  heard  him  leave  by  the  side 
door.  Whether  he  had  done  this  on  purpose  to  avoid 
her,  or  whether  it  was  the  result  of  chance,  Kate  passed 
the  morning  in  considering.  She  had  hitherto  succeeded 
in  completely  ignoring  their  ridiculous  fall  amid  the  tea- 
cups, but  the  memory  of  it  now  surged  up  in  her  mind; 
and  certain  coarse  details  that  she  had  forgotten  con- 
tinued to  recur  to  her  with  a  singular  persistency;  deaf 
to  Render's  conversation,  she  sat  sullenly  sewing,  hating 
even  to  go  down  to  the  shop  to  attend  when  Mrs.  Ede 
called  from  below  that  there  was  a  customer  waiting. 

About  three  o'clock  Mrs.  Ede's  voice  was  heard. 

'  Kate,  come  down ;  there  is  someone  in  the  shop.' 

Passing  round  the  counter,  she  found  herself  face  to 
face  with  a  well-dressed  woman. 

'  I  was  recommended  here  by  Mrs.  West,'  the  lady 
said,  after  a  slight  hesitation,  '  to  buy  a  set  of  baby 
clothes.' 

'Is  it  for  a  new-born  infant?'  Kate  asked,  putting 
on  her  shop  airs. 

'  Well,  the  baby  is  not  born  yet,  but  I  hope  soon 
will  be.' 

'  Oh,  I  beg  pardon,'  said  Kate,  casting  a  rapid  glance 
in  the  direction  of  the  lady's  waist. 

The  baby  clothes  were  kept  in  a  box  under  the  coun- 
ter, and  in  a  few  moments  Kate  reappeared  with  a  bun- 
dle of  flannels. 

'  You  will  find  these  of  the  very  best  quality.  Will 
you  feel  the  warmth  of  this,  ma'am  ?  '  she  said,  spreading 
out  something  that  looked  like  two  large  towels. 

The  lady  seemed  satisfied  with  the  quality,  but  from 
her  manner  of  examining  the  strings  Kate  judged  she 
was  at  her  first  confinement,  and  with  short  phrases  and 
quick  movements  proceeded  to  explain  how  the  infant 


94  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

was  to  be  laid  in  the  middle,  and  how  the  tapes  were 
to  be  tied  across. 

'  And  you  will  want  a  hood  and  cloak  ?  We  have 
some  very  nice  ones  at  two  pounds  ten;  but  perhaps  you 
would  not  like  to  give  so  much?' 

Without  replying  to  this  question,  the  lady  asked  to 
see  the  articles  referred  to,  and  then,  beneath  the  men's 
shirts  that  hung  just  above  their  heads,  the  two  women 
talked  with  many  genuine  airs  of  mystery  and  covert 
subtlety.  The  lady  spoke  of  her  fears,  of  how  much 
she  wished  the  next  fortnight  was  over,  of  her  husband, 
of  how  long  she  had  been  married.  She  was  Mrs.  Wood, 
the  stationer's  wife  in  Piccadilly.  Kate  said  she  knew 
her  customer's  shop  perfectly,  and  assumed  a  sad  ex- 
pression when  in  her  turn  she  was  asked  if  she  had  any 
children.  On  her  replying  in  the  negative,  Mrs.  Wood 
said,  with  a  sigh  of  foreboding,  that  people  were  pos- 
sibly just  as  well  without  them. 

It  was  at  this  moment  that  Mr.  Lennox  entered,  and 
Kate  tried  to  sweep  away  and  to  hide  up  the  things  that 
were  on  the  counter.  Mrs.  Wood  was  mildly  embar- 
rassed, and  with  a  movement  of  retiring  she  attempted 
to  resume  the  conversation. 

'  Very  well,  Mrs.  Ede,'  she  said,  '  I  quite  agree  with 
you — and  I'll  call  again  about  those  pocket-handker- 
chiefs.' 

But  Kate  in  her  anxiety  not  to  lose  a  chance  of  doing 
a  bit  of  business,  foolishly  replied: 

'  Yes,  but  about  those  baby  clothes — shall  I  send 
them,  Mrs.  Wood?' 

Mrs.  Wood  murmured  something  inaudible  in  reply, 
and  as  she  sidled  and  backed  out  of  the  shop  she 
bumped  against  Mr.  Lennox. 

He  lifted  his  big  hat  and  strove  to  make  way  for  her, 
but  he  had  to  get  into  a  corner  to  allow  her  to  pass  out, 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  95 

and  then,  still  apologizing,  he  took  a  step  forwards, 
and  leaning  on  the  counter,  said  in  a  hurried  voice: 

'  I've  been  waiting  to  see  you  for  the  last  two  days. 
Where  have  you  been  hiding  yourself?' 

The  unexpected  question  disconcerted  Kate,  and  in- 
stead of  answering  him  coldly  and  briefly,  as  she  had 
intended,  said: 

'Why,  here;  where  did  you  expect  me  to  be?  But 
you've  been  out  ever  since/  she  said  simply. 

'  It  wasn't  my  fault — the  business  I've  had  to  do !  I 
was  in  London  yesterday,  and  only  got  back  last  night 
in  time  for  the  show.  There  was  talk  of  our  boss  dry- 
ing up,  but  I  think  it's  all  right.  I'll  tell  you  about 
that  another  time.  I  want  you  to  come  to  the  theatre 
to-morrow  night.  Here  are  some  tickets  for  the  centre 
circle.  I'll  come  and  sit  with  you  when  I  get  the  cur- 
tain up,  and  we'll  be  able  to  talk.' 

The  worm  does  not  easily  realize  the  life  of  the  fly, 
and  Kate  did  not  understand.  The  rapidly  stated  facts 
bewildered  her,  and  she  could  only  say,  in  answer  to  his 
again  repeated  question: 

'  Oh,  I  should  like  it  so  much,  but  it  is  impossible ; 
if  my  mother-in-law  heard  of  it  I  don't  know  what  she 
would  say.' 

'Well,  then,  come  to-night;  but  no,  confound  it,  I 
shall  be  busy  all  to-night.  Hayes,  our  acting  manager, 
has  been  drunk  for  the  last  three  days;  he  can't  even 
make  up  the  returns.  No,  no;  you  must  come  to-morrow 
night.  Come  with  Hender;  she's  one  of  the  dressers. 
I'll  make  that  all  right;  you  can  tell  her  so  from  me. 
Will  you  promise  to  come?' 

'  I  should  like  it  so  much ;  but  what  excuse  can  I  give 
for  being  out  till  half-past  ten  at  night?' 

'  You  needn't  stay  till  ten ;  you  can  leave  before  the 
piece  is  half  over.  Say  you  went  out  for  a  walk.' 


96  A   MUMMER'S   WIFE 

The  most  ingenious  and  complete  fiction  that  Mr. 
Lennox's  inventive  brain  might  have  worked  out  would 
not  have  appeased  Kate's  fears  so  completely  as  the 
simple  suggestion  of  a  walk,  and  her  face  lit  up  with 
a  glow  of  intelligence  as  she  remembered  how  success- 
fully she  had  herself  made  use  of  the  same  excuse. 

'  Then  you'll  come?'  he  said,  taking  her  look  for  an 
answer. 

'  I'll  try/  she  replied,  still  hesitating. 

'  Then  that's  all  right,'  he  murmured,  pressing  two 
or  three  pieces  of  paper  into  her  hands.  '  I've  been 
thinking  of  you  a  great  deal/ 

Kate  smiled  slowly,  and  a  slight  flush  for  a  moment 
illuminated  the  pale  olive  complexion. 

'  I  dreamt  that  we  were  going  up  to  London  together, 
and  that  your  head  was  lying  on  my  shoulder,  and  it 
was  so  nice  and  pleasant,  and  when  I  woke  up  I  was 
disappointed.' 

Kate  shivered  a  little,  and  drew  back  as  if  afraid ;  and 
in  the  pause  which  ensued,  Mr.  Lennox  remembered  an 
appointment. 

'  I  must  be  off  now,'  he  said,  '  there's  no  help  for  it ; 
but  you  won't  disappoint  me,  will  you?  The  doors  open 
at  half -past  six.  If  you're  there  early  I  may  be  able 
to  see  you  before  the  piece  begins.' 

And  with  a  grand  lift  of  the  hat  the  actor  hurried 
away,  leaving  Kate  to  examine  the  three  pieces  of  paper 
he  had  given  her. 

It  was  clearly  impossible  for  her  to  go  to  the  theatre 
without  her  assistant  finding  it  out;  she  must  confide  in 
Render,  who  would  be  astonished,  no  doubt.  And  she 
was  not  wrong  in  her  surmise;  the  news  produced  first 
an  astonished  stare,  and  then  a  look  of  satisfaction  to 
be  read:  '  Well,  you  are  coming  to  your  senses  at  last.' 
Kate  would  have  liked  no  more  to  be  said  on  the  sub- 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  97 

ject,  but  the  fact  that  her  employer  was  going  to  meet 
Mr.  Lennox  at  the  theatre  was  not  sufficient  for  Render, 
she  must  needs  question  Kate  how  this  change  had  come 
about  in  her.  '  Was  she  really  spoons  on  the  actor  ?' 
At  these  words  Kate,  who  wished  to  leave  everything 
vague,  the  facts  as  well  as  her  conception  of  them,  de- 
clared that  she  would  rather  not  go  to  the  theatre  at  all, 
if  such  remarks  were  to  be  made. 

Whereupon  Miss  Render  took  a  view  less  carnal,  and 
the  two  women  discussed  how  old  Mrs.  Ede  might  be 
given  the  slip.  The  idea  of  the  walk  was  not  approved 
of;  it  was  too  simple;  but  on  this  point  Kate  would  take 
no  advice,  although  she  accepted  the  suggestion  that  she 
was  to  go  upstairs,  and  under  the  pretext  of  changing 
her  petticoat,  should  fold  her  hat  into  her  mantle  and 
tie  the  two  behind  her  just  as  she  would  a  bustle;  an 
ingenious  device,  but  difficult  to  put  into  practice. 

Ralph  was  out  of  bed,  and,  having  been  deprived  of 
speech  for  more  than  a  week,  he  followed  Kate  into  the 
back  room,  worrying  her  with  questions  about  the  shop, 
his  health,  his  mother,  and  Mr.  Lennox. 

At  five  o'clock  Mrs.  Ede  came  up  to  say  she  was  go- 
ing up  the  town  to  do  a  little  marketing  for  Sunday, 
and  to  ask  Kate  to  come  down  to  the  front  kitchen, 
where  she  could  be  in  sight  of  the  shop.  Miss  Render 
said  nothing  could  have  happened  more  fortunately, 
and,  with  many  instructions  as  to  where  they  should 
meet,  she  hurried  away.  But  she  was  no  sooner  gone 
than  Kate  remembered  she  had  no  one  to  leave  in  charge 
of  the  shop.  She  should  have  asked  one  of  the  appren- 
tices, but  she  hadn't,  and  would  have  to  turn  the  key  in 
the  door  and  leave  her  mother-in-law  to  come  in  by  the 
side  way.  Ralph  would  open  to  her;  it  couldn't  be 
helped.  Mr.  Lennox  was  going  away  to-morrow;  she 
must  see  him. 


98  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

At  that  moment  her  mantle  caused  her  some  uneasi- 
ness; it  didn't  seem  to  hang  well,  and  it  was  impossible 
to  go  to  the  theatre  in  the  gloves  that  had  been  lying  in 
her  pocket  for  the  last  month.  She  took  a  pair  of  grey 
thread  from  the  window,  but  while  pulling  them  on  her 
face  changed  expression.  Was  it  Ralph  coming  down 
the  staircase?  There  was  nobody  else  in  the  house. 
Trembling,  she  waited  for  him  to  appear.  Wheezing 
loudly,  her  husband  dragged  himself  through  the  door- 
way. 

'  What — do  you  look  so  fri — frightened  at?  You  did 
— didn't  expect  to  see  me,  did  you?' 

'  No,  I  didn't,'  Kate  answered  as  if  in  a  dream. 

'  Feeling  a  good  deal  better,  I  thou — ght  I  would 
come  down,  but — but  the  stairs — have  tried  me.' 

It  was  some  time  before  he  could  speak  again.  At 
last  he  said: 

'Where  are  you  going?' 

'  I  was  just  going  for  a  walk.' 

'  I  don't  know  how  it  is,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  you're 
always  out  now ;  always  coming  in  or  going  out ;  never 
in  the  shop.  If  it  wasn't  for  my  asthma  I  don't  think 
I'd  ever  be  out  of  the  shop,  but  women  think  of  nothing 

but  pleasure  and  '  — a  very  rude  word  which  she 

had  never  heard  Ralph  use  before.  But  it  might  be 
that  she  was  mistaken.  Poor  man!  it  was  distressing 
to  watch  him  gasping  for  breath.  He  leaned  against 
the  counter,  and  Kate  begged  him  to  let  her  help  him 
upstairs,  but  he  shook  her  off  testily,  saying  that  he 
understood  himself  better  than  anybody  else  did,  and 
that  he  would  look  after  the  shop. 

'  You're  going  out  ?  Well,  go,'  and  she  hurried  away, 
hoping  that  a  customer  would  come  in,  for  his  great  de- 
light was  the  shop.  '  Attending  on  half  a  dozen  cus- 
tomers will  amuse  him  more  than  the  play  will  amuse 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  99 

me,'  she  said  to  herself,  and  a  smile  rose  to  her  lips, 
for  she  imagined  him  taking  advantage  of  her  absence 
to  rearrange  the  window.  '  But  what  can  have  brought 
him  down  ?'  Kate  asked  herself.  '  Ah !  that's  it,'  she 
said,  for  it  had  suddenly  come  into  her  mind  that  ever 
since  she  had  told  him  of  a  certain  sale  of  aprons  and 
some  unexpected  orders  for  baby  clothes  he  had  often 
mentioned  that  the  worst  part  of  these  asthmatic  attacks 
was  that  they  prevented  his  attendance  in  the  shop. 
'  The  shop  is  his  pleasure  just  as  the  theatre  is  Hen- 
der's/  Kate  said  as  she  hurried  up  Piccadilly  to  the 
theatre,  her  heart  in  her  mouth,  for  her  time  was  up. 
Fearing  to  miss  Hender,  she  raced  along,  dodging  the 
passengers  with  quick  turns  and  twists.  '  It's  my  only 
chance  of  seeing  him;  he's  going  away  to-morrow,'  and 
she  was  living  so  intensely  in  her  own  imagination  that 
she  neither  saw  nor  heeded  anybody  until  she  suddenly 
heard  somebody  calling  after  her,  '  Kate !  Kate !  Kate ! ' 
She  turned  round  and  faced  her  mother-in-law. 

'  Where  on  earth  are  you  going  at  that  rate  ?'  said 
Mrs.  Ede,  who  carried  a  small  basket  on  her  arm. 

'  Only  for  a  walk/  Kate  replied  in  a  voice  dry  with 
enforced  calmness. 

'Oh,  for  a  walk;  I'm  glad  of  that;  it  will  do  you 
good.  But  which  way  are  you  going?' 

'  Anywhere  round  about  the  town.  Up  on  the  hill, 
St.  John's  Road.' 

'How  curious!  I  was  just  thinking  of  going  back 
that  way.  There's  a  fruiterer's  shop  where  you  can  get 
potatoes  a  penny  a  stone  cheaper  than  you  can  here.' 

If  a  thunderbolt  had  ruined  Hanley  before  her  eyes 
at  that  moment,  it  would  not  have  appeared  to  her  of 
such  importance  as  this  theft  of  her  evening's  pleasure. 
It  was  with  difficulty  that  she  saved  herself  from  say- 


100  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

ing  straight  out  that  she  was  going  to  the  theatre  to  see 
Mr.  Lennox,  and  had  a  right  to  do  so  if  she  pleased. 

'  But  I  like  walking  fast/  she  said;  'perhaps  I  walk 
too  fast  for  you?' 

'  Oh  no,  not  at  all.  My  old  legs  are  as  good  as  your 
young  ones.  Kate,  dear,  what  is  the  matter?  Are  you 
all  right?'  she  said,  seeing  how  cross  her  daughter-in- 
law  was  looking. 

'  Oh  yes,  I'm  all  right,  but  you  do  bother  one  so.' 

This  very  injudicious  phrase  led  to  a  demonstration 
of  affection  on  the  part  of  Mrs.  Ede,  and  whatever  were 
the  chances  of  getting  rid  of  her  before,  they  were  now 
reduced  to  nothing.  The  strain  on  her  nerves  was  at 
height  during  the  first  half  of  the  walk,  for  during  that 
time  she  knew  that  Mr.  Lennox  was  expecting  her; 
afterwards,  while  bargaining  with  the  fruiterer  in  St. 
John's  Road,  she  fell  into  despondency.  Nothing  seemed 
to  matter  now;  she  did  not  care  what  might  befall  her, 
and  in  silence  she  accompanied  her  mother-in-law  home. 

'  Now,  mother,  you  must  leave  me;  I've  some  work 
to  finish.' 

'  I'm  sorry,  Kate,  if ' 

'  Mother,  I've  some  work  to  finish;  good-night.' 

And  she  sat  in  the  workroom  waiting  for  Mr.  Lennox. 
At  last  his  heavy  step  was  heard  on  the  stairs;  then, 
laying  aside  the  shirt  she  was  making,  she  stole  out  to 
meet  him.  He  saw  her  as  he  scraped  a  match  on  the 
wall;  dropping  it,  he  put  out  his  hands  towards  her. 

'  Is  that  you,  dear  ?'  he  said.  '  Why  didn't  you  come 
to  the  theatre?  We  had  a  magnificent  house.' 

'  I  couldn't ;  I  met  my  mother-in-law.' 

The  red  embers  of  the  match  that  had  fallen  on  the 
floor  now  went  out,  and  the  indication  of  their  faces 
was  swept  away  in  the  darkness. 

'  Let  me  get  a  light,  dear.'     The  intonation  of  his 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  101 

voice  as  he  said  '  dear '  caused  her  an  involuntary  feel- 
ing of  voluptuousness.  She  trembled  as  the  vague  out- 
line of  his  big  cheeks  became  clear  in  the  red  flame  of 
the  match  which  he  held  in  his  hollowed  hands. 

'  Won't  you  come  in  ?'  she  heard  him  say  a  moment 
after. 

'  No,  I  couldn't;  I  must  go  upstairs  in  a  minute.  I 
only  came  to  tell  you,  for  I  didn't  want  you  to  go  away 
angry ;  it  wasn't  my  fault.  I  should  so  much  have  liked 
to  have  gone  to  the  theatre.' 

'  It  was  a  pity  you  didn't  come;  I  was  waiting  at  the 
door  for  you.  I  could  have  sat  by  you  the  whole  time.' 

Kate's  heart  died  within  her  at  thought  of  what  she 
had  lost,  and  after  a  long  silence  she  said  very  mourn- 
fully: 

'  Perhaps  when  you  come  back  another  time  I  shall 
be  able  to  go  to  the  theatre.' 

'  We've  done  so  well  heie  that  we're  going  to  get  an- 
other date.  I'll  write  and  let  you  know.' 

'  Will  you  ?    And  will  you  come  back  and  lodge  here  ?' 

'  Of  course ;  and  I  hope  that  I  shan't  be  so  unlucky 
the  next  time  as  to  fall  down  amid  the  crockery.' 

At  this  they  both  laughed,  and  the  conversation  came 
to  a  pause. 

'  I  must  bid  you  good-night  now.' 

'  But  won't  you  kiss  me — just  a  kiss,  so  that  I  may 
have  something  to  think  of?' 

'  Why  do  you  want  to  kiss  me  ?  You  have  Miss  Les- 
lie to  kiss.' 

'  I  never  kissed  Leslie ;  that's  all  nonsense,  and  I 
want  to  kiss  you  because  I  love  you.' 

Kate  made  no  answer,  and,  following  her  into  the 
heavy  darkness  that  hung  around  the  foot  of  the  stair- 
case, he  took  her  in  his  arms.  She  at  first  made  no  re- 


102  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

sistance,  but  the  passion  of  his  kiss  caused  her  a  sudden 
revolt,  and  she  struggled  with  him. 

'  Oh,  Mr.  Lennox,  let  me  go,  I  beg  of  you,'  she  said, 
speaking  with  her  lips  close  to  his.  '  Let  me  go,  let  me 
go;  they  will  miss  me.' 

Possibly  fearing  another  fall,  Lennox  loosed  his  em- 
brace, and  she  left  him. 


VII 


NEXT  morning  about  eleven  the  mummer  took  off  his 
hat  in  his  very  largest  manner  to  the  ladies,  and  the  bow 
was  so  deferential,  and  seemed  to  betoken  so  much  re- 
spect for  the  sex,  that  even  Mrs.  Ede  could  not  help 
thinking  that  Mr.  Lennox  was  very  polite.  Ralph  too 
was  impressed,  as  well  he  might  be,  so  attentively  did 
Dick  listen  to  him,  just  as  if  nothing  in  the  world  con- 
cerned him  as  much  as  this  last  attack  of  asthma,  and  it 
was  not  until  Mrs.  Ede  mentioned  that  they  would  be 
late  for  church  that  it  occurred  to  Dick  that  his  chance 
of  catching  the  eleven  o'clock  train  was  growing  more 
and  more  remote.  With  a  hasty  comment  on  his  dila- 
toriness,  he  caught  up  a  parcel  and  rug  and  shook  hands 
with  them  all. 

The  cab  rattled  away,  and  Ralph  proceeded  up  the 
red,  silent  streets  towards  the  Wesleyan  church,  walk- 
ing very  slowly  between  his  woman-kind. 

'  There's  no  doubt  but  that  Mr.  Lennox  is  a  very  nice 
man,'  he  said,  after  they  had  gone  some  twenty  or  thirty 
paces — '  a  very  nice  man  indeed ;  you  must  admit, 
mother,  that  you  were  wrong.' 

'  He's  polite,  if  you  will,'  replied  Mrs.  Ede,  who  for 
the  last  few  minutes  had  been  considering  the  ungodli- 
ness of  travelling  on  a  Sunday. 

'  Don't  walk  so  fast,'  Ralph  cried. 
8  103 


104  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

*  Well,  then,  we  shall  be  late  for  church !' 
'  Which,  then,  is  the  most  important  in  your  eyes — 
Mr.  Peppencott's  sermon  or  my  breath?' 

'  I'm  not  thinking  of  Mr.  Peppencott's  sermon.' 
'  Then  of  his  voice  in  the  prayer.  Lennox  may  be  no 
better  than  an  actor,'  he  continued,  '  but  he's  more  fel- 
low-feeling than  you  have.  You  saw  yourself  how  in- 
terested he  was  in  my  complaint,  and  I  shall  try  the 
cigarettes  that  used  to  give  his  mother  relief.'  He  ap- 
pealed to  Kate,  who  answered  him  that  it  would  be  as 
well  to  try  the  cigarettes,  and  her  thoughts  floated  away 
into  a  regret  that  Mr.  Lennox  had  not  been  able  to  come 
to  church  with  them,  for  she  was  reckoned  to  have  a 
good  voice.  It  may  have  been  a  memory  of  Dick  that 
enabled  her  to  pour  her  voice  into  the  hymn,  singing  it 
more  lustily  than  Mrs.  Ede  ever  heard  her  sing  it  be- 
fore. It  seemed  to  Mrs.  Ede  that  only  God's  grace 
could  enable  anyone  to  sing  as  Kate  was  singing,  and 
when  the  minister  began  to  preach  and  Kate  sat  down, 
her  eyes  fixed,  Mrs.  Ede  rejoiced.  '  The  word  of  God 
has  reached  her  at  last,'  she  said.  '  Never  have  I  seen 
her  listen  so  intently  before  to  Mr.  Peppencott.'  Kate 
sat  quite  still,  almost  unconscious  of  the  life  around  her, 
remembering  that  it  was  on  her  way  from  the  potteries 
that  she  had  learnt  that  there  is  a  life  within  us  deeper 
and  more  intense  than  the  life  without  us.  Dick's  kisses 
had  angered  her  at  the  moment,  but  in  recollection  they 
were  inexpressibly  dear  to  her.  Her  fear  had  been  that 
time  would  dim  her  recollection  of  them,  and  her  great 
joy  was  to  discover  that  this  was  not  so,  and  that  she 
could  recall  the  intonations  of  his  voice  and  the  colour 
of  his  eyes  and  the  words  he  spoke  to  her,  reliving  them 
in  imagination  more  intensely  than  while  she  was  actu- 
ally in  his  arms  just  before  that  terrible  fall  or  in  the 
shop  and  frightened  lest  Mrs.  Ede  or  Ralph  should 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  105 

come  in  and  surprise  them.  But  in  imagination  she 
was  secure  from  interruption  and  hindrance  and  could 
taste  over  and  over  again  the  words  that  he  had  spoken : 
'  I  shall  be  back  in  three  months,  dear  one.' 

A  great  part  of  her  happiness  was  in  the  fact  that  it 
was  all  within  herself,  that  none  knew  of  it;  had  she 
wished  to  communicate  it,  she  could  not  have  done  so. 
It  was  a  life  within  her  life,  a  voice  in  her  heart  which 
she  could  hear  at  any  moment,  and  it  was  a  voice  so 
sweet  and  intense  that  it  could  close  her  ears  to  her 
husband  and  her  mother-in-law,  who  during  dinner  fell 
into  one  of  their  habitual  quarrels. 

Ralph,  who  had  not  forgotten  his  mother's  lack  of 
sympathy  on  their  way  to  church,  maintained  the  fa- 
vourable opinion  he  had  formed  of  Mr.  Lennox.  '  It's 
unchristian,'  he  said,  '  to  condemn  a  man  because  of  the 
trade  or  profession  he  follows,'  and  somewhat  abashed, 
his  mother  answered:  '  I've  always  been  taught  to  be- 
lieve that  people  who  don't  go  to  church  led  godless 
lives.' 

Sunday  was  kept  strictly  in  this  family.  Three  serv- 
ices were  attended  regularly.  Kate  hoped  to  recover 
the  sensations  of  the  morning,  and  attended  church  in 
the  afternoon.  But  the  whole  place  seemed  changed. 
The  cold  white  walls  chilled  her;  the  people  about  her 
appeared  to  her  in  a  very  small  and  miserable  light,  and 
she  was  glad  to  get  home.  Her  thoughts  went  back  to  the 
book  she  had  fallen  asleep  over  last  Sunday  night  when 
she  sat  by  her  husband's  bedside,  and  when  the  house  was 
quiet  she  went  upstairs  and  fetched  it.  But  after  read- 
ing a  few  pages  the  heat  of  the  house  seemed  to  her  in- 
tolerable. There  was  no  place  to  go  to  for  a  walk 
except  St.  John's  Road,  and  there,  turning  listlessly 
over  the  pages  of  the  old  novel,  the  time  passed  imper- 
ceptibly. It  was  like  sitting  on  the  sea-shore;  the  hills 


106  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

extended  like  an  horizon,  and  as  the  sea-dreamer  strives 
to  pierce  the  long  illimitable  line  of  the  wave  and  fol- 
lows the  path  of  the  sailing  ship,  so  did  Kate  gaze  out 
of  the  sweeping  green  line  that  enclosed  all  she  knew 
of  the  world,  and  strove  to  look  beyond  into  the  country 
to  where  her  friend  was  going. 

Northwood,  with  its  hundreds  of  sharp  roofs  and 
windows,  seemed  to  be  dropping  into  a  Sunday  doze, 
under  pale  salmon-coloured  tints,  and  the  bells  of  its 
church  sounded  clearer  and  clearer  at  each  peal.  Warm 
airs  passed  over  the  red  roofs  of  Southwark,  and  below 
in  the  vast  hollow  of  the  valley  all  was  still,  all  seemed 
abandoned  as  a  desert;  no  whiff  of  white  steam  was 
blown  from  the  collieries;  no  black  cloud  of  smoke 
rolled  from  the  factory  chimneys,  and  they  raised  their 
tall  stems  like  a  suddenly  dismantled  forest  to  a  wan, 
an  almost  colourless  sky.  The  hills  alone  maintained 
their  unchangeable  aspect. 


VIII 

BY  well-known  ways  the  dog  comes  back  to  his  kennel, 
the  sheep  to  the  fold,  the  horse  to  the  stable,  and  even 
so  did  Kate  return  to  her  sentimental  self.  One  day  she 
was  turning  over  the  local  paper,  and  suddenly,  as  if 
obeying  a  long-forgotten  instinct,  her  eyes  wandered  to 
the  poetry  column,  and  again,  just  as  in  old  time,  she 
was  caught  by  the  same  simple  sentiments  of  sadness 
and  longing.  She  found  there  the  usual  song,  in  which 
regret  rhymes  to  forget.  The  same  dear  questions 
which  used  to  enchant  seven  years  ago  were  again  asked 
in  the  same  simple  fashion ;  and  they  touched  her  now 
as  they  had  before.  She  refound  all  her  old  dreams. 
It  seemed  as  if  not  a  day  had  passed  over  her.  When 
she  was  a  girl  she  used  to  collect  every  scrap  of  love 
poetry  that  appeared  in  the  local  paper,  and  paste  them 
into  a  book,  and  now,  the  events  of  the  week  having 
roused  her  from  the  lethargy  into  which  she  had  fallen, 
she  turned  for  a  poem  to  the  Hanley  Courier  as  instinc- 
tively as  an  awakened  child  turns  to  the  breast. 

The  verses  she  happened  to  hit  on  were  after  her  own 
heart,  and  just  what  were  required  to  complete  the 
transformation  of  her  character: 

'  I  love  thee,  I  love  thee,  how  fondly,  how  well 
Let  the  years  that  are  coming  my  constancy  tell  : 
I   think   of  thee   dally,   my   night-thoughts  are   thine ; 
In    fairy-like   vision    thy    hand    presses    mine : 
And   even   though  absent  you   dwell  In   my  heart ; 
Of  all  that  is  dear  to  me.  dearest,   thou  art,' 

107 


108  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

In  reading  these  lines  Kate's  heart  began  to  beat 
quickly,  her  eyes  filled  with  tears,  and  wrapped  in 
brightness,  like  a  far  distant  coast-line,  a  vision  of  her 
girlhood  arose.  She  recalled  the  emotions  she  once  ex- 
perienced, the  books  she  had  read,  and  the  poetry  that 
was  lying  upstairs  in  an  old  trunk  pushed  under  the 
bed.  It  seemed  to  her  wonderful  that  it  had  been  for- 
gotten so  long;  her  memory  skipped  from  one  fragment 
to  the  other,  picking  up  a  word  here,  a  phrase  there, 
until  a  remembrance  of  her  favourite  novel  seized  her; 
she  became  the  heroine  of  the  absurd  fiction,  substitut- 
ing herself  for  the  lady  who  used  to  read  Byron  and 
Shelley  to  the  gentleman  who  went  to  India  in  despair. 

As  the  fitness  of  the  comparison  dawned  upon  her, 
she  yielded  to  an  ineffable  sentiment  of  weakness: 
George  was  the  husband's  name  in  the  book,  she  was 
Helene,  and  Dick  was  the  lover  to  whom  she  could  not, 
would  not,  give  herself,  and  who  on  that  account  had 
gone  away  in  despair.  The  coincidence  appeared  to  her 
as  something  marvellous,  something  above  nature,  and 
she  turned  it  over,  examined  it  in  her  mind,  as  a  child 
would  a  toy,  till,  forgetful  of  her  desire  to  overlook 
these  relics  of  old  times,  she  went  upstairs  to  the  work- 
room. 

The  missed  visit  to  the  theatre  was  a  favourite  theme 
of  conversation  between  the  two  women.  Kate  listened 
to  what  went  on  behind  the  scenes  with  greater  indul- 
gence, and  she  seemed  to  become  more  accustomed  to 
the  idea  that  Bill  and  Render  were  something  more 
than  friends.  She  was  conscious  of  disloyalty  to  her 
own  upbringing  and  to  her  mother-in-law  who  loved  her, 
and  she  often  blamed  herself  and  resolved  never  to  al- 
low Render  to  speak  ill  again  of  Mrs.  Ede.  But  the 
temptation  to  complain  was  insidious.  It  was  not  every 
woman  who  would  consent,  as  she  did,  to  live  under  the 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  109 

same  roof  as  her  mother-in-law,  and  Hender,  who  hated 
Mrs.  Ede,  who  spoke  of  her  as  the  '  hag/  never  lost  an 
opportunity  of  pointing  out  the  fact  that  the  house  was 
Kate's  house  and  not  Mrs.  Ede's.  The  first  time  Hen- 
der  said,  '  After  all,  the  house  is  yours/  Kate  was 
pleased,  but  the  girl  insisted  too  much,  and  Kate  was 
often  irritated  against  her  assistant,  and  she  often  raged 
inwardly.  It  was  abominable  to  have  her  thoughts  in- 
terpreted by  Render.  She  loved  her  mother-in-law 
dearly,  she  didn't  know  what  she'd  do  without  her, 
but So  it  went  on;  struggle  as  she  would  with  her- 
self, there  still  lay  at  the  bottom  of  her  mind  the  thought 
that  Mrs.  Ede  had  prevented  her  from  going  that  even- 
ing to  the  theatre,  and  turn,  twist,  and  wander  away  as 
she  would,  it  invariably  came  back  to  her. 

Frequently  Miss  Render  had  to  repeat  her  questions 
before  she  obtained  an  intelligible  answer,  and  often, 
without  even  vouchsafing  a  reply,  Kate  would  pitch  her 
work  aside  nervously.  Her  thoughts  were  not  in  her 
work;  she  waited  impatiently  for  an  opportunity  of 
turning  out  the  old  trunk,  full  of  the  trinkets,  books, 
verses,  remembrances  of  her  youth,  which  lay  under  her 
bed,  pushed  up  against  the  wall.  But  a  free  hour  was 
only  possible  when  Ralph  was  out.  Then  her  mother- 
in-law  had  to  mind  the  shop,  and  Kate  would  be  sure 
of  privacy  at  the  top  of  the  house. 

There  was  no  valid  reason  why  she  should  dread  being 
found  out  in  so  innocent  an  amusement  as  turning  over 
a  few  old  papers.  Her  fear  was  merely  an  unreasoned 
and  nervous  apprehension  of  ridicule.  Ever  since  she 
could  remember,  her  sentimentality  was  always  a  sub- 
ject either  of  mourning  or  pity;  in  allowing  it  to  die  out 
of  her  heart  she  had  learned  to  feel  ashamed  of  it;  the 
idea  of  being  discovered  going  back  to  it  revolted  her, 
and  she  did  not  know  which  would  annoy  her  the  most, 


110  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

her  husband's  sneers  or  Mrs.  Ede's  blank  alarm.  Kate 
remembered  how  she  used  to  be  told  that  novels  must  be 
wicked  and  sinful  because  there  was  nothing  in  them 
that  led  the  soul  to  God,  and  she  resolved  to  avoid  fur- 
ther lectures  on  this  subject.  She  devoted  herself  to 
the  task  of  persuading  Ralph  to  leave  his  counter  and 
to  go  out  for  a  walk.  This  was  not  easy,  but  she  ar- 
rived at  last  at  the  point  of  helping  him  on  with  his 
coat  and  handing  him  his  hat;  then,  conducting  him  to 
the  door,  she  bade  him  not  to  walk  fast  and  to  be  sure 
to  keep  in  the  sun.  She  then  went  upstairs,  her  mind 
relaxed,  determined  to  enjoy  herself  to  the  extent  of 
allowing  her  thoughts  for  an  hour  or  so  to  wander  at 
their  own  sweet  will. 

The  trunk  was  an  oblong  box  covered  with  brown 
hair;  to  pull  it  out  she  had  to  get  under  the  bed,  and 
it  was  with  trembling  and  eager  fingers  that  she  untied 
the  old  twisted  cords.  Remembrance  with  Kate  was  a 
cult,  but  her  husband's  indifference  and  her  mother-in- 
law's  hard,  determined  opposition  had  forced  the  past 
out  of  sight;  but  now  on  the  first  encouragement  it 
gushed  forth  like  a  suppressed  fountain  that  an  incau- 
tious hand  had  suddenly  liberated.  And  with  what  joy 
she  turned  over  the  old  books !  She  examined  the  colour 
of  the  covers,  she  read  a  phrase  here  and  there:  they 
were  all  so  dear  to  her  that  she  did  not  know  which  she 
loved  the  best.  Scenes,  heroes,  and  heroines  long  for- 
gotten came  back  to  her,  and  in  what  minuteness,  and 
how  vividly !  It  appeared  to  her  that  she  could  not  go 
on  fast  enough;  her  emotion  gained  upon  her  until  she 
became  quite  hysterical;  in  turning  feverishly  over  some 
papers  a  withered  pansy  floated  into  her  lap.  Tears 
started  to  her  eyes,  and  she  pressed  the  poor  little 
flower,  forgotten  so  long,  to  her  lips.  She  could  not 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  111 

remember  when  she  gathered  it,  but  it  had  come  to  her. 
Her  lips  quivered,  the  light  seemed  to  be  growing  dark, 
and  a  sudden  sense  of  misery  eclipsed  her  happiness, 
and  unable  to  restrain  herself  any  longer,  she  burst  into 
a  tumultuous  storm  of  sobs. 

But  after  having  cried  for  a  few  minutes  her  passion 
subsided,  and  she  wiped  the  tears  from  her  hands  and 
face,  and,  smiling  at  herself,  she  continued  her  search. 
Everything  belonging  to  that  time  interested  her,  verses 
and  faded  flowers ;  but  her  thoughts  were  especially  cen- 
tred on  an  old  copybook  in  which  she  kept  the  frag- 
ments of  poetry  that  used  to  strike  her  fancy  at  the  mo- 
ment. When  she  came  upon  it  her  heart  beat  quicker, 
and  with  mild  sentiments  of  regret  she  read  through 
the  slips  of  newspaper;  they  were  all  the  same,  but  as 
long  as  anyone  was  spoken  of  as  being  the  nearest  and 
the  dearest  Kate  was  satisfied.  Even  the  bonbon  mot- 
toes, of  which  there  were  large  numbers,  drew  from  her 
the  deepest  sighs.  The  little  Cupid  firing  at  a  target  in 
the  shape  of  a  heart,  with  '  Tom  Smith  &  Co.,  London,' 
printed  in  small  letters  underneath,  did  not  prevent  her 
from  sharing  the  sentiment  expressed  in  the  lines: 

'Let  this  cracker,  torn  asunder, 
Be  an  emblem  of  my  heart; 
And  as  we  have  shared  the  plunder, 
Pray  you  of  my  love  take  part.' 

Sitting  on  the  floor,  with  one  hand  leaning  on  the  open 
trunk,  she  read,  letting  her  thoughts  drift  through  past 
scenes  and  sensations.  All  was  far  away;  and  she 
turned  over  the  relics  that  the  past  had  thrown  up  on 
the  shore  of  the  present  without  seeing  any  connection 
between  them  and  the  needs  of  the  moment  until  she  lit 
on  the  following  verses: 


112  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'Wearily  I'm  waiting  for  you, 

For  your  absence  watched  in  vain; 
Ask  myself  the  hopeless  question, 
Will  he  ever  come  again? 

'All  these  years,  am  I  forgotten? 

Or  in  absence  are  you  true? 
Oh,  my  darling,  'tis  so  lonely, 
Watching,  waiting  here  for  you! 

'  Has  your  heart  from  its  allegiance 

Turned  to  greet  a  fairer  face? 
Have  you  welcomed  in  another 
Charms  you  missed  in  me,  and  grace? 

'Long,  long  years  I  have  been  waiting, 

Bearing  up  against  my  pain; 
All  my  thoughts  and  vows  have  vanished, 
Will  they  ever  come  again? 

'Yes,  for  woman's  faith  ne'er  leaves  her, 

And  my  trust  outweighs  my  fears; 
And  I  still  will  wait  his  coming, 
Though  it  may  not  be  for  years.' 

As  the  deer,  when  he  believes  he  has  eluded  the 
hounds,  leaves  the  burning  plains  and  plunges  into  the 
cool  woodland  water,  Kate  bathed  her  tired  soul,  letting 
it  drink  its  fill  of  this  very  simple  poem.  The  sentiment 
came  to  her  tenderly,  through  the  weak  words;  and 
melting  with  joy,  she  repeated  them  over  and  over 
again. 

At  last  her  sad  face  lit  up  with  a  smile.  It  had  oc- 
curred to  her  to  send  the  poem  that  gave  her  so  much 
pleasure  to  Dick.  It  would  make  him  think  of  her  when 
he  was  far  away ;  it  would  tell  him  that  she  had  not  for- 
gotten him.  The  idea  pleased  her  so  much  that  it  did 
not  occur  to  her  to  think  if  she  would  be  doing  wrong 
in  sending  these  verses  to  her  lodger,  and  with  renewed 
ardour  and  happiness  she  continued  her  search  among 
her  books.  There  was  no  question  in  her  mind  as  to 
which  she  would  read,  and  she  anticipated  hours  of  de- 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  113 

light  in  tracing  resemblances  between  herself  and  the 
lady  who  used  to  read  Byron  and  Shelley  to  her  aristo- 
cratic lover.  She  feared  at  first  she  had  lost  this  novel, 
but  when  it  was  discovered  it  was  put  aside  for  imme- 
diate use.  The  next  that  came  under  her  hand  was  the 
story  of  a  country  doctor.  In  this  instance  the  medical 
hero  had  poisoned  one  sister  to  whom  he  was  secretly 
married  in  order  that  he  might  wed  a  second.  Kate  at 
first  hesitated,  but  remembering  that  there  was  an  elope- 
ment, with  a  carriage  overturned  in  a  muddy  lane,  she 
decided  upon  looking  it  through  again.  Another  book 
related  the  love  of  a  young  lady  who  found  herself  in 
the  awkward  predicament  of  not  being  able  to  care  for 
anyone  but  her  groom,  who  was  lucky  enough  to  be  the 
possessor  of  the  most  wonderful  violet  eyes.  The 
fourth  described  the  distressing  position  of  a  young 
clergyman  who,  when  he  told  the  lady  of  his  choice  that 
his  means  for  the  moment  did  not  admit  of  his  taking  a 
wife,  was  answered  that  it  did  not  matter,  for  in  the 
meantime  she  was  quite  willing  to  be  his  mistress.  This 
devotion  and  self-sacrifice  touched  Kate  so  deeply  that 
she  was  forced  to  pause  in  her  search  to  consider  how 
those  who  have  loved  much  are  forgiven.  But  at  this 
moment  Mrs.  Ede  entered. 

'  Oh,  Kate,  what  are  you  doing  ?' 

Although  the  question  was  asked  in  an  intonation  of 
voice  affecting  to  be  one  of  astonishment  only,  there  was 
nevertheless  in  it  an  accent  of  reproof  that  was  espe- 
cially irritating  to  Kate  in  her  present  mood.  A  deaf 
anger  against  her  mother-in-law's  interference  oppressed 
her,  but  getting  the  better  of  it,  she  said  quietly, 
though  somewhat  sullenly: 

'You  always  want  to  know  what  I'm  doing!  I  de- 
clare, one  can't  turn  round  but  you're  after  me,  just  like 
a  shadow.' 


114  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  What  you  say  is  un j  ust,  Kate,'  replied  the  old 
woman  warmly.  '  I'm  sure  I  never  pry  after  you.' 

'Well,  anyhow,  there  it  is:  I'm  looking  out  for  a 
book  to  read  in  the  evenings,  if  you  want  to  know.' 

'  I  thought  you'd  given  up  reading  those  vain  and  sin- 
ful books;  they  can't  do  you  any  good.' 

'What  harm  can  they  do  me?' 

'  They  turn  your  thoughts  from  Christ.  I've  looked 
into  them  to  see  that  I  may  not  be  speaking  wrongly, 
and  I've  found  them  nothing  but  vain  accounts  of  the 
world  and  its  worldliness.  I  didn't  read  far,  but  what 
I  saw  was  a  lot  of  excusing  of  women  who  couldn't  love 
their  husbands,  and  much  sighing  after  riches  and 
pleasure.  I  thanked  God  you'd  given  over  such  things. 
I  believed  your  heart  was  turned  towards  Him.  Now  it 
grieves  me  bitterly  to  see  I  was  mistaken.' 

'  I  don't  know  what  you  mean.  Ralph  never  said  that 
there  was  any  harm  in  my  reading  tales/ 

'Ah!  Ralph,  I'm  afraid,  has  never  set  a  good  exam- 
ple. I  wouldn't  blame  him,  for  he's  my  own  son,  but 
I'd  wish  to  see  him  not  prizing  so  highly  the  things  of 
the  world.' 

'  We  must  live,  though,'  Kate  answered,  without  quite 
understanding  what  she  said. 

'  Live — of  course  we  have  to  live ;  but  it  depends  how 
we  live  and  what  we  live  for — whether  it  be  to  indulge 
the  desires  of  the  flesh,  the  desire  of  the  eye,  or  to  re- 
gain the  image  of  God,  to  have  the  design  of  God  again 
planted  in  our  souls.  This  is  what  we  should  live  for, 
and  it  is  only  thus  that  we  shall  find  true  happiness.' 

Though  these  were  memories  of  phrases  heard  in  the 
pulpit,  they  were  uttered  by  Mrs.  Ede  with  a  fervour, 
with  a  candour  of  belief,  that  took  from  them  any  ap- 
pearance of  artificiality;  and  Kate  did  not  notice  that 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  115 

her  mother-in-law  was  using  words  that  were  not 
habitual  to  her. 

'  But  what  do  you  want  me  to  do?'  said  Kate,  who 
began  to  feel  frightened. 

'  To  go  to  Christ,  to  love  Him.  He  is  all  we  have 
to  help  us,  and  they  who  love  Him  truly  are  guided  as 
to  how  to  live  righteously.  Whether  we  eat  or  drink, 
or  whatever  we  do,  it  springs  from  or  leads  to  the  love 
of  God  and  man.' 

These  words  stirred  Kate  to  her  very  entrails;  a  sud- 
den gush  of  feeling  brought  the  tears  to  her  eyes,  and 
she  was  on  the  point  of  throwing  herself  into  Mrs.  Ede's 
arms. 

The  temptation  to  have  a  good  cry  was  almost  irre- 
sistible, and  the  burden  of  her  pent-up  emotions  was 
more  than  she  could  bear.  But  communing  the  while 
rapidly  within  herself,  she  hesitated,  until  an  unex- 
pected turn  of  thought  harshly  put  it  before  her  that 
she  was  being  made  a  fool  of — that  she  had  a  perfect 
right  to  look  through  her  books  and  poetry,  and  that 
Hender's  sneers  were  no  more  than  she  deserved  for 
allowing  a  mother-in-law  to  bully  her.  Then  the  tears 
of  sorrow  became  those  of  anger,  and  striving  to  speak 
as  rudely  as  she  could,  she  said: 

'  I  don't  talk  about  Christ  as  much  as  you,  but  He 
judges  us  by  our  hearts  and  not  by  our  words.  You 
would  do  well  to  humble  yourself  before  you  come  to 
preach  to  others.' 

'  Dear  Kate,  it's  because  I  see  you  interested  in 
things  that  have  no  concern  with  God's  love  that  I  speak 
to  you  so.  A  man  who  never  knows  a  thought  of  God 
has  been  staying  here,  and  I  fear  he  has  led  you ' 

At  these  words  Kate  threw  the  last  papers  into  the 
trunk,  pushed  it  away,  and  turned  round  fiercely. 

'  Led  me  into  what  ?    What  do  you  mean  ?     Mr.  Len- 


116  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

nox  was  here  because  Ralph  wished  him  to  be  here.  I 
think  that  you  should  know  better  than  to  say  such 
things.  I  don't  deserve  it.' 

On  this  Kate  left  the  room,  her  face  clouded  and 
trembling  with  a  passion  that  she  did  not  quite  feel.  To 
just  an  appreciable  extent  she  was  conscious  that  it 
suited  her  convenience  to  quarrel  with  her  mother-in- 
law.  She  was  tired  of  the  life  she  was  leading;  her 
whole  heart  was  in  her  novels  and  poetry;  and,  deter- 
mined to  take  in  the  London  Reader  or  Journal,  she 
called  back  to  Mrs.  Ede  that  she  was  going  to  consult 
Ralph  on  the  matter. 

He  was  in  capital  spirits.  The  affairs  in  the  shop 
were  going  on  more  satisfactorily  than  usual,  a  fact 
which  he  did  not  fail  to  attribute  to  his  superior  com- 
mercial talents.  '  A  business  like  theirs  went  to  the 
bad,'  he  declared,  '  when  there  wasn't  a  man  to  look 
after  it.  Women  liked  being  attended  to  by  one  of  the 
other  sex/  and  beaming  with  artificial  smiles,  the  little 
man  measured  out  yards  of  ribbon,  and  suggested  '  that 
they  had  a  very  superior  thing  in  the  way  of  petticoats 
just  come  from  Manchester.'  His  health  was  also  much 
improved,  so  much  so  that  his  asthmatic  attack  seemed 
to  have  done  him  good.  A  little  colour  flushed  his 
cheeks  around  the  edges  of  the  thick  beard.  In  the 
evenings  after  supper,  when  the  shop  was  closed,  an 
hour  before  they  went  up  to  prayers,  he  would  talk  of 
the  sales  he  had  made  during  the  day,  and  speak  au- 
thoritatively of  the  possibilities  of  enlarging  the  busi- 
ness. His  ambition  was  to  find  someone  in  London  who 
would  forward  them  the  latest  fashions;  somebody  who 
would  be  clever  enough  to  pick  out  and  send  them  some 
stylish  but  simple  dress  that  Kate  could  copy.  He 
would  work  the  advertisements,  and  if  the  articles  were 
well  set  in  the  window  he  would  answer  for  the  rest. 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  117 

The  great  difficulty  was,  of  course,  the  question  of 
frontage,  and  Mr.  Ede's  face  grew  grave  as  he  thought 
of  his  little  windows.  '  Nothing/  he  said,  '  can  be  done 
without  plate-glass;  five  hundred  pounds  would  buy  out 
the  fruit-seller,  and  throw  the  whole  place  into  one  ' ; 
and  Kate,  interested  in  all  that  was  imaginative,  would 
raise  her  eyes  from  the  pages  of  her  book  and  ask  if 
there  was  no  possibility  of  realizing  this  grand  future. 

She  was  reading  a  novel  full  of  the  most  singular 
and  exciting  scenes.  In  it  she  discovered  a  character 
who  reminded  her  of  her  husband,  a  courtier  at  the 
Court  of  Louis  XIV.,  who  said  sharp  things,  and  often 
made  himself  disagreeable,  but  there  was  something  be- 
hind that  pleased,  and  under  the  influence  of  this  fancy 
she  began  to  find  new  qualities  in  Ralph,  the  existence 
of  which  she  had  not  before  suspected.  Sometimes  the 
thought  struck  her  that  if  he  had  been  always  like  what 
he  was  now  she  would  have  loved  him  better,  and  listen- 
ing to  a  dispute  which  had  arisen  between  him  and  his 
mother  regarding  the  purchase  of  the  fruiterer's  premises, 
her  smile  deepened,  and  then,  the  humour  of  the  like- 
ness continuing  to  tickle  her,  she  burst  out  laughing. 

'  What  are  you  laughing  at,  Kate  ?'  said  her  husband, 
looking  admiringly  at  her  pretty  face.  Mrs.  Ede  sternly 
continued  her  knitting,  but  Ralph  seemed  so  pleased, 
and  begged  so  good-naturedly  to  be  told  what  the  matter 
was,  that  the  temptation  to  do  so  grew  irresistible. 

'  You  won't  be  angry  if  I  tell  you?' 

'  Angry,  no.    Why  should  I  be  angry  ?' 

'  You  promise  ?' 

'  Yes,  I   promise,'  replied   Ralph,  extremely  curious. 

'  Well,  then,  there  is  a  cha-cha-rac-ter  so — so 
like— 

'  Oh,  if  you  want  to  tell  me,  don't  laugh  like  that. 
I  can't  hear  a  word  you're  saying.' 


118  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 


'  Oh,  it  is  so — so — so  like- 


'  Yes,  but  do  stop  laughing  and  tell  me.' 

At  last  Kate  had  to  stop  laughing  for  want  of  breath, 
and  she  said,  her  voice  still  trembling: 

'  Well,  there's  a  fellow  in  this  book — you  promise  not 
to  be  angry?' 

'  Oh,  yes,  I  promise.' 

'  Well,  then,  there's  someone  in  this  book  that  does 
remind  me  so  much — of  you — that  is  to  say,  when  you're 
cross,  not  as  you  are  now.' 

At  this  announcement  Mrs.  Ede  looked  up  in  aston- 
ishment, and  she  seemed  as  hurt  as  if  Kate  had  slapped 
her  in  the  face.  Whereas  Ralph's  face  lighted  up,  his 
smile  revealing  through  the  heavy  moustache  the  gap 
between  his  front  teeth  which  had  been  filled  with 
some  white  substance:  Kate  always  noticed  it  with  aver- 
sion, but  Ralph,  who  was  not  susceptible  to  feminine 
revulsions  of  feelings,  begged  her  to  read  the  passage 
and  with  an  eagerness  that  surprised  his  mother.  With- 
out giving  it  a  second  thought  she  began,  but  she  had 
not  read  half  a  dozen  words  before  Mrs.  Ede  had  gath- 
ered up  her  knitting  and  was  preparing  to  leave  the 
room. 

'  Oh,  mother,  don't  go !  I  assure  you  there's  no 
harm.' 

'  Leave  her  alone.  I'm  sick  of  all  this  nonsense  about 
religion.  I  should  like  to  know  what  harm  we're  doing,' 
said  Ralph. 

Kate  made  a  movement  to  rise,  but  he  laid  his  hand 
upon  her  arm,  and  a  moment  after  Mrs.  Ede  was  gone. 

'  Oh,  do  let  me  go  and  fetch  her,'  exclaimed  Kate. 
'  I  shouldn't — I  know  I  shouldn't  read  these  books.  It 
pains  her  so  much  to  see  me  wasting  my  time.  She 
must  be  right.' 

'  There's  no  right  about  it;  she'd  bully  us  all  if  she 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  119 

had  her  way.  Do  be  quiet,  Kate!  Do  as  I  tell  you, 
and  let's  hear  the  story.' 

Relinquishing  another  half-hearted  expostulation 
which  rose  to  her  lips,  Kate  commenced  to  read.  Ralph 
was  enchanted,  and,  deliciously  tickled  at  the  idea  that 
he  was  like  some  one  in  print,  he  chuckled  under  his 
breath.  Soon  they  came  to  the  part  that  had  struck 
Kate  as  being  so  particularly  appropriate  to  her  hus- 
band. It  concerned  a  scene  between  this  ascetic  cour- 
tier and  a  handsome,  middle-aged  widow  who  frequently 
gave  him  to  understand  that  her  feelings  regarding  him 
were  of  the  tenderest  kind;  but  on  every  occasion  he 
pretended  to  misunderstand  her.  The  humour  of  the 
whole  thing  consisted  in  the  innocence  of  the  lady,  who 
fancied  she  had  not  explained  herself  sufficiently;  and 
harassed  with  this  idea,  she  pursued  the  courtier  from 
the  Court  ball  into  the  illuminated  gardens,  and  there 
told  him,  and  in  language  that  admitted  of  no  doubt, 
that  she  wished  to  marry  him.  The  courtier  was  indig- 
nant, and  answered  her  so  tartly  that  Kate,  even  in 
reading  it  over  a  second  time,  could  not  refrain  from  fits 
of  laughter. 

'  It  is — is  so — s-o  like  what  you  w-wo-uld  say  if  a 
wo-wo-man  were  to  fol-low  you,'  she  said,  with  the  tears 
rolling  down  her  cheeks. 

'  Is  it  really?'  asked  Ralph,  joining  in  the  laugh,  al- 
though in  a  way  that  did  not  seem  to  be  very  genuine. 
The  fact  was  that  he  felt  just  a  little  piqued  at  being 
thought  so  indifferent  to  the  charms  of  the  other  sex, 
and  looked  at  his  wife  for  a  moment  or  two  in  a  curious 
sort  of  way,  trying  to  think  how  he  should  express  him- 
self. At  last  he  said: 

'  I'm  sure  that  if  it  was  my  own  Kate  who  was  there 
I  shouldn't  answer  so  crossly.' 

Kate  ceased  laughing,  and  looked  up  at  him  so  sud- 
9 


120  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

denly  that  she  increased  his  embarrassment;  but  the 
remembrance  that  he  was  after  all  only  speaking  to  his 
wife  soon  came  to  his  aid,  and  confidentially  he  sat 
down  beside  her  on  the  sofa.  Her  first  impulse  was  to 
draw  away  from  him — it  was  so  long  since  he  had 
spoken  to  her  thus. 

'  Could  you  never  love  me  again  if  I  were  very  kind 
to  you?' 

'  Of  course  I  love  you,  Ralph.' 

'  It  wasn't  my  fault  if  I  was  ill — one  doesn't  feel  in- 
clined to  love  anyone  in  illness.  Give  me  a  kiss,  dear.' 

A  recollection  of  how  she  had  kissed  Dick  flashed 
across  her  mind,  but  in  an  instant  it  was  gone;  and 
bending  her  head,  she  laid  her  lips  to  her  husband's. 
It  in  no  way  disgusted  her  to  do  so;  she  was  glad  of 
the  occasion,  and  was  only  surprised  at  the  dull  and 
obtuse  anxiety  she  experienced.  They  then  spoke  of  in- 
different things,  but  the  flow  of  conversation  was  often 
interrupted  by  complimentary  phrases.  While  Ralph 
discoursed  on  his  mother's  nonsense  in  always  dragging 
religion  into  everything,  Kate  congratulated  him  on 
looking  so  much  better ;  and,  as  she  told  him  of  the  work 
she  would  have  to  get  through  at  all  costs  before  Friday, 
he  either  squeezed  her  hand  or  said  that  her  hair  was 
getting  thicker,  longer,  and  more  beautiful  than  ever. 
***** 

Next  morning  Kate  received  a  letter  from  Dick,  say- 
ing he  was  coming  to  Hanley  on  his  return  visit,  and 
hoped  that  he  would  be  able  to  have  his  old  rooms. 


IX 


SHE  would  have  liked  to  talk  to  Render  first,  but  Hen- 
der  would  not  arrive  for  another  hour,  and  nothing  had 
ever  seemed  to  her  so  important  as  that  Dick  should 
lodge  with  them.  It  was  therefore  with  bated  breath 
that  she  waited  for  Ralph  to  speak.  They  could  not 
hope,  he  said,  to  find  a  nicer  lodger;  the  little  he  had 
seen  of  him  made  him  desirous  of  renewing  the  ac- 
quaintance, and  he  continued  all  through  breakfast  to 
eulogize  Mr.  Lennox.  His  mother,  whose  opinions  were 
attacked,  sat  munching  her  bread  and  butter  with  in- 
difference. But  it  was  not  permitted  to  anyone  to  be 
indifferent  to  Ralph's  wishes,  and  determined  to  resent 
the  impertinence,  he  derisively  asked  his  mother  if  she 
had  any  objections. 

'  You've  a  right  to  do  what  you  like  with  your  rooms ; 
but  I  should  like  to  know  why  you  so  particularly  want 
this  actor  here.  One  would  think  he  was  a  dear  friend 
of  yours  to  hear  you  talk.  Is  it  the  ten  shillings  a  week 
he  pays  for  his  room  and  the  few  pence  you  make  out 
of  his  breakfast  you're  hankering  after?' 

'  Of  course  I  want  to  keep  my  rooms  let.  Perhaps 
you  might  like  to  have  them  yourself;  you  could  have 
all  the  clergymen  in  the  town  to  see  you  once  a  week, 
and  a  very  nice  tea-party  you'd  make  in  the  sitting- 
room.'  Nor  was  this  all;  he  continued  to  badger  his 

1121 


122  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

mother  with  the  bitterest  taunts  he  could  select.  Quite 
calmly  Kate  watched  him  work  himself  into  a  passion, 
until  he  declared  that  he  had  other  reasons  more  impor- 
tant than  the  ten  shillings  a  week  for  wishing  to  have 
Mr.  Lennox  staying  in  the  house.  This  statement 
caused  Kate  just  a  pang  of  uneasiness,  and  she  begged 
for  an  explanation.  Partly  to  reward  her  for  having 
backed  him  up  in  the  discussion,  and  through  a  wish  to 
parade  his  own  far-seeing  views,  he  declared  that  Mr. 
Lennox  might  be  of  great  use  to  them  in  their  little 
business  if  he  were  so  inclined.  Kate  could  not  repress 
a  look  of  triumph;  she  knew  now  that  nothing  would 
keep  him  from  having  Dick  in  the  house. 

'  Shall  I  write  to  him  to-day,  then,  and  say  that  we 
can  let  him  have  the  rooms  from  next  Monday?' 

'  Of  course/  Ralph  replied,  and  Kate  went  upstairs 
with  Render,  who  had  just  come  in.  The  little  girls 
were  told  to  move  aside ;  there  was  a  lot  of  cutting  to  be 
done;  this  was  said  preparatory  to  telling  them  a  little 
later  on  that  they  were  too  much  in  the  way,  and  would 
have  to  go  down  and  work  in  the  front  kitchen  under 
the  superintendence  of  Mrs.  Ede.  Render  was  at  the 
machine,  but  Kate  who  had  a  dressing-gown  on  order, 
unrolled  the  blue  silk  and  fidgeted  round  the  table  as  if 
she  had  not  enough  room  for  laying  out  her  pattern- 
sheets.  Render  noticed  these  manoeuvres  with  some  sur- 
prise, and  when  Kate  said,  '  Now,  my  dear  children, 
I'm  afraid  you're  very  much  in  my  way;  you'd  better 
go  downstairs,'  she  looked  up  with  the  expression  of  one 
who  expects  to  be  told  a  secret.  This  manifest  certitude 
that  something  was  coming  troubled  Kate,  and  she 
thought  it  would  be  better  after  all  to  say  nothing  about 
Mr.  Lennox,  but  again  changing  her  mind,  she  said, 
assuming  an  air  of  indifference: 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  123 

'  Mr.  Lennox  will  be  here  on  Monday.  I've  just  got 
a  letter  from  him.' 

'Oh,  I'm  so  glad;  for  perhaps  this  time  it  will  be 
possible  to  have  one  spree  on  the  strict  q.t.' 

Kate  was  thinking  of  exactly  the  same  thing  but  Miss 
Render's  crude  expression  took  the  desire  out  of  her 
heart,  and  she  remained  silent. 

'  I'm  sure  it's  for  you  he's  coming/  said  the  assistant. 
'  I  know  he  likes  you;  I  could  see  it  in  his  eyes.  You 
can  always  see  if  a  man  likes  you  by  his  eyes/ 

Although  it  afforded  Kate  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  to 
think  that  Dick  liked  her,  it  was  irritating  to  hear  his 
feelings  for  her  discussed;  she  could  not  forget  she  was 
a  married  woman,  and  she  began  to  regret  that  she  ever 
mentioned  the  subject  at  all,  when  Miss  Hender  said: 

'  But  what's  the  use  of  his  coming  if  you  can't  get 
out?  A  man  always  expects  a  girl  to  be  able  to  go  out 
with  him.  The  "  hag  "  is  sure  to  be  about,  and  even  if 
you  did  manage  to  give  her  the  slip,  there's  your  hus- 
band. Lord !  I  hadn't  thought  of  that  before.  What 
damned  luck !  Don't  you  wish  he'd  get  ill  again  ?  An- 
other fit  of  asthma  would  suit  us  down  to  the  ground.' 

The  blood  rushed  to  Kate's  face,  and  snapping  nerv- 
ously with  the  scissors  in  the  air,  she  said: 

'  I  don't  know  how  you  can  bring  yourself  to  speak 
in  that  way.  How  can  you  think  that  I  would  have  my 
husband  ill  so  that  I  might  go  to  the  theatre  with  Mr. 
Lennox?  What  do  you  fancy  there  is  between  us  that 
makes  you  say  such  a  thing  as  that?' 

'  Oh,  I  really  don't  know,'  Miss  Hender  answered 
with  a  toss  of  her  head;  '  if  you're  going  to  be  hoighty- 
toighty  I've  done.' 

Kate  thought  it  very  provoking  that  Hender  could 
never  speak  except  coarsely,  and  it  would  have  given 
her  satisfaction  to  have  said  something  sharp,  but  she 


124  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

had  let  Hender  into  a  good  many  of  her  secrets,  and 
it  would  be  most  inconvenient  to  have  her  turn  round 
on  her.  Not,  indeed,  that  she  supposed  she'd  be  wicked 

enough  to  do  anything  of  the  kind,  but  still 

And  influenced  by  these  considerations,  Kate  deter- 
mined not  to  quarrel  with  Hender,  but  to  avoid  speak- 
ing to  her  of  Dick.  Even  with  her  own  people  she 
maintained  an  attitude  of  shy  reserve  until  Dick  ar- 
rived, declining  on  all  occasions  to  discuss  the  subject, 
whether  with  her  husband  or  mother-in-law.  '  I  don't 
care  whether  he  comes  or  not;  decide  your  quarrels  as 
you  like,  I've  had  enough  of  them/  was  her  invariable 
answer.  This  air  of  indifference  ended  by  annoying 
Ralph,  but  she  was  willing  to  do  that  if  it  saved  her 
from  being  forced  into  expressing  an  opinion — that  was 
the  great  point;  for  with  a  woman's  instinct  she  had 
already  divined  that  she  would  not  be  left  out  of  the 
events  of  the  coming  week.  But  there  was  still  another 
reason.  She  was  a  little  ashamed  of  her  own  treachery. 
Otherwise  her  conscience  did  not  trouble  her;  it  was 
crushed  beneath  a  weight  of  desire  and  expectancy,  and 
for  three  or  four  days  she  moved  about  the  house  in  a 
dream.  When  she  met  her  husband  on  the  stairs  and 
he  joked  her  about  the  roses  in  her  cheeks,  she  smiled 
curiously,  and  begged  him  to  let  her  pass.  In  the  work- 
room she  was  happy,  for  the  mechanical  action  of  sew- 
ing allowed  her  to  follow  the  train  of  her  dreams,  and 
drew  the  attention  of  those  present  away  from  her.  She 
had  tried  her  novels,  but  now  the  most  exciting  failed 
to  fix  her  thoughts.  The  page  swam  before  her  eyes, 
a  confusion  of  white  and  black  dots,  the  book  would  fall 
upon  her  lap  in  a  few  minutes,  and  she  would  relapse 
again  into  thinking  of  what  Dick  would  say  to  her,  and 
of  the  hours  that  still  separated  them.  On  Sunday, 
without  knowing  why,  she  insisted  on  attending  all  the 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  125 

services.  Ralph  in  no  way  cared  for  this  excessive  de- 
votion and  he  proposed  to  take  her  for  a  walk  in  the 
afternoon,  but  she  preferred  to  accompany  Mrs.  Ede  to 
church.  It  loosened  the  tension  of  her  thoughts  to  raise 
her  voice  in  the  hymns,  and  the  old  woman's  gabble  was 
pleasant  to  listen  to  on  their  way  home — a  sort  of  mean- 
ingless murmur  in  her  ears  while  she  was  thinking  of 
Dick,  whom  she  might  meet  on  the  doorstep.  It  was, 
however,  his  portmanteau  that  they  caught  sight  of  in 
the  passage  when  they  opened  the  door.  Ralph  had 
taken  it  in;  Lennox  said  that  he  had  a  lot  of  business 
to  do  with  the  acting  manager,  and  would  not  return 
before  they  went  up  to  prayers.  Still  Kate  did  not  lose 
hope,  and  on  the  off  chance  that  he  might  feel  tired 
after  his  journey,  and  come  home  earlier  than  he  ex- 
pected, she  endeavoured  to  prolong  the  conversation 
after  supper.  By  turns  she  spoke  to  Mrs.  Ede  of  the 
sermons  of  the  day,  and  to  Ralph  of  the  possibilities  of 
enlarging  the  shop-front.  But  when  she  was  forced  to 
hear  how  the  actor  was  to  send  them  the  new  fashions 
from  London,  the  old  lady  grew  restive,  as  did  Ralph 
when  the  conversation  turned  on  the  relative  merits  of 
the  morning  and  afternoon  sermon.  It  was  the  old  story 
of  the  goat  and  the  cabbage — each  is  uneasy  in  the 
other's  company;  and  even  before  the  usual  time  mother 
and  son  agreed  that  it  would  be  better  to  say  prayers 
and  get  to  bed. 

Kate  would  have  given  anything  to  see  Dick  that 
night,  and  she  lay  awake  for  hours  listening  for  the 
sound  of  the  well-known  heavy  footstep.  At  last  it 
came,  tramp,  tramp,  a  dull,  heavy,  noisy  flapping  through 
the  silence  of  the  house.  She  trembled,  fearing  that 
he  would  mistake  the  door  and  come  into  their  room; 
if  he  did,  she  felt  she  would  die  of  shame.  The  foot- 
steps approached  nearer,  nearer;  her  husband  was  snor- 


126  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

ing  loudly,  and,  casting  a  glance  at  him,  she  wondered 
if  she  should  have  time  to  push  the  bolt  to.  But  imme- 
diately after,  Dick  stumbled  up  the  stairs  into  his  room, 
and,  hugging  the  thought  that  he  was  again  under  her 
roof,  she  fell  to  dreamng  of  their  meeting  in  the  morn- 
ing, wondering  if  it  would  befall  her  to  meet  him  on  the 
stairs  or  in  the  shop  face  to  face,  or  if  she  would  catch 
sight  of  him  darting  out  of  the  door  hurrying  to  keep 
an  appointment  which  he  had  already  missed.  Mrs. 
Ede  usually  took  in  the  lodger's  hot  water,  it  not  being 
considered  quite  right  for  Kate  to  go  into  a  gentleman's 
room  when  he  was  in  bed.  But  the  next  morning  Mrs. 
Ede  was  out  and  Ralph  was  asleep,  so  there  was  noth- 
ing for  it  but  to  fill  the  jug. 

Dick  heard  the  door  open,  but  didn't  trouble  to  look 
round,  thinking  it  was  Mrs.  Ede,  and  Kate  glided  to  the 
washhandstand  and  put  down  the  jug  in  the  basin.  But 
the  clink  of  the  delf  caused  him  to  look  round. 

'  Oh,  is  that  you,  Kate?'  he  said,  brushing  aside  with 
a  wave  of  his  bare  arm  his  frizzly  hair.  '  I  didn't  ex- 
pect to  see  so  pretty  a  sight  first  thing  in  the  morning. 
And  how  have  you  been?' 

'  I'm  very  well,  thank  you,  sir,'  Kate  replied,  re- 
treating. 

'  Well,  I  don't  see  why  you  should  run  away  like  that. 
What  have  I  done  to  offend  you?  You  know/  he  said, 
lowering  his  voice  to  a  confidential  whisper,  '  I  didn't 
write  to  you  about  the  poetry  you  sent  me  (at  least,  I 
suppose  it  was  from  you,  it  had  the  Hanley  post-mark; 
if  it  wasn't,  I'll  burn  it),  because  I  was  afraid  that  your 
old  mother  or  your  husband  might  get  hold  of  my  let- 
ter.' 

'I  must  go  away  now,  sir;  your  hot  water  is  there/ 
she  said,  looking  towards  the  door,  which  was  ajar. 

'  But  tell  me,  wasn't  it  you  who  sent  me  the  verses  ? 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  127 

I  have  them  here,  and  I  brought  you  a  little  something 
— I  won't  tell  you  what — in  return.' 

'  I  can't  talk  to  you  now/  said  Kate,  casting  on  him 
one  swift  glance  of  mingled  admiration  and  love.  Al- 
though somewhat  inclined  to  corpulence,  he  was  a  fine 
man,  and  looked  a  tower  of  strength  as  he  lay  tossed 
back  on  the  pillows,  his  big  arms  and  thick  brown  throat 
bare.  A  flush  rose  to  her  cheeks  when  he  said  that  he 
had  brought  her  a  little  something;  all  the  same,  it  was 
impossible  to  stop  talking  to  him  now,  and  hoping  to 
make  him  understand  her  position,  raising  her  voice, 
she  said: 

'  And  what  can  I  get  you  for  breakfast,  sir  ?  Would 
you  like  an  omelette?' 

'  Oh,  I  shan't  be  able  to  wait  for  breakfast ;  I  have  to 
be  up  at  our  acting  manager's  by  nine  o'clock.  What 
time  is  it  now?' 

'  I  think  it's  just  going  the  half-hour,  sir.' 

'  Oh,  then,  I've  lots  of  time  yet,'  replied  Dick,  set- 
tling himself  in  a  way  that  relieved  Kate  of  all  appre- 
hension that  he  was  going  to  spring  out  before  her  on 
the  floor. 

'Then  shall  I  get  you  breakfast,  sir?' 

'  No,  thanks,  I  shan't  have  time  for  that;  I  shall  have 
something  to  eat  up  at  Hayes'.  But  tell  me,  is  there 
anyone  listening?'  he  said,  lowering  his  voice  again,  '  I 
want  to  speak  to  you  now  particularly,  for  I'm  afraid 
I  shall  be  out  all  day.' 

Afraid  that  her  husband  might  overhear  her,  Kate 
made  a  sign  in  the  negative,  and  whispered,  '  To-mor- 
row at  breakfast.' 

Although  the  thought  that  he  had  a  present  for  her 
delighted  her  all  day,  Kate  was  not  satisfied;  for  there 
had  been  something  pretty,  something  coquettish  asso- 
ciated in  her  mind  with  carrying  in  his  breakfast  tray 


128  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

(doubtless  a  remembrance  of  the  ribbon-bedecked  cham- 
bermaids she  had  read  of  in  novels),  which  was  absent 
in  the  more  menial  office  of  taking  in  his  hot  water. 
Besides,  had  he  not  told  her  that  he  was  going  to  be  out 
all  day?  Monday,  Tuesday,  and  Wednesday  she  had 
dotted  over  with  little  plans;  Thursday  and  Friday  she 
knew  nothing  of.  Saturday?  Well,  there  was  just  a 
possibility  that  he  might  kiss  her  before  going  away. 
She  felt  irritated  with  herself  for  this  thought,  but 
could  not  rid  herself  of  it;  a  bitter  sense  of  voluptuous- 
ness burnt  at  the  bottom  of  her  heart,  and  she  railed 
against  life  sullenly.  She  had  missed  him  on  Sunday; 
Monday  had  ended  as  abruptly  as  an  empty  nut,  and 
Render's  questions  vexed  and  wearied  her;  she  de- 
spaired of  being  able  to  go  to  the  theatre.  Nothing 
seemed  to  be  going  right.  Even  the  little  gold  earrings 
which  Dick  took  out  of  a  velvet  case  and  wanted  to  put 
into  her  ears  only  added  a  bitterer  drop  to  her  cup.  All 
she  could  do  was  to  hide  them  away  where  no  one  could 
find  them.  It  tortured  her  to  have  to  tell  him  that  she 
could  not  wear  them,  and  the  kiss  that  he  would  ask  for, 
and  she  could  not  refuse,  seemed  only  a  mockery.  He 
was  going  away  on  Sunday,  and  this  time  she  did  not 
know  when  he  would  return.  In  addition  to  all  these 
disappointments,  she  found  herself  obliged  to  go  for  a 
long  walk  on  Tuesday  afternoon  to  see  a  lady  who  had 
written  to  her  about  a  dress.  She  did  not  get  home  un- 
til after  six,  and  then  it  was  only  to  learn  that  Mr. 
Lennox  had  been  about  the  house  all  day,  idling  and 
talking  to  Ralph  in  the  shop,  and  that  they  had  gone 
off  to  the  theatre  together.  Mrs.  Ede  was  more  than 
indignant,  and  when  the  little  man  was  brought  home  at 
night,  speaking  painfully  in  little  short  gasps,  she  de- 
clared that  it  was  a  judgment  upon  him. 

Next  day  he  was  unable  to  leave  his  room.     When 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  129 

Dick  was  told  what  had  happened  he  manifested  much 
concern,  and  insisted  on  seeing  the  patient.  Indeed,  the 
sympathy  he  showed  was  so  marked  that  Kate  at  first 
was  tempted  to  doubt  its  sincerity.  But  she  was  wrong. 
Dick  was  truly  sorry  for  poor  Ralph,  and  he  sat  a  long 
time  with  him,  thinking  what  could  be  done  to  relieve 
him.  He  laid  all  the  blame  at  his  own  door.  He  ought 
never  to  have  kept  a  person  liable  to  such  a  disease  out 
so  late  at  night.  There  was  a  particular  chair  in  which 
Ralph  always  sat  when  he  was  affected  with  his  asthma. 
It  had  a  rail  on  which  he  could  place  his  feet,  and  thus 
lift  one  knee  almost  on  to  a  level  with  his  chest;  and 
in  this  position,  his  head  on  his  hand,  he  would  remain 
for  hours  groaning  and  wheezing.  Dick  watched  him 
with  an  expression  of  genuine  sorrow  on  his  big  face; 
and  it  was  so  clear  that  he  regretted  what  he  had  done 
that  for  a  moment  even  Mrs.  Ede's  heart  softened  to- 
wards him.  But  the  thaw  was  only  momentary;  she 
froze  again  into  stone  when  he  remarked  that  it  was  a 
pity  that  Mr.  Ede  was  ill,  for  they  were  going  to  play 
Madame  Angot  on  Thursday  night,  and  he  would  like 
them  all  to  come.  The  invitation  flattered  Ralph's  van- 
ity, and,  resolved  not  to  be  behind-hand  in  civility,  he 
declared  between  his  gasps  that  no  one  should  be  dis- 
appointed on  his  account;  he  would  feel  highly  compli- 
mented by  Mr.  Lennox's  taking  Mrs.  Ede  to  the  play; 
and  on  the  spot  it  was  arranged  that  Kate  and  Miss 
Hender  should  go  together  on  Thursday  night  to  see 
Madame  Angot. 

Kate  murmured  that  she  would  be  very  pleased,  and 
alluding  to  some  work  which  had  to  be  finished,  she  re- 
turned to  the  workroom  to  tell  Hender  the  news. 

'  That's  the  best  bit  of  news  I've  heard  in  this  house 
for  some  time/  Hender  said. 

Kate  felt  she  could  not  endure  another  disappoint- 


130  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

merit.  All  that  was  required  of  her  now  was  to  assume 
an  air  of  indifference,  and  take  care  not  to  betray  her- 
self to  Mrs.  Ede,  whom  she  suspected  of  watching  her. 
But  her  excitement  rendered  her  nervous,  and  she  found 
the  calm  exterior  she  was  so  desirous  of  imposing  on 
herself  difficult  to  maintain.  The  uncertainty  of  her 
husband's  temper  terrified  her.  It  was  liable  at  any 
moment  to  change,  and  on  the  night  in  question  he 
might  order  her  not  to  leave  the  house.  If  so,  she 
asked  herself  if  she  would  have  the  courage  to  disobey 
him.  The  answer  slipped  from  her:  it  was  impossible 
for  her  to  fix  her  attention  on  anything;  and  although 
she  had  a  press  of  work  on  her  hands,  she  availed  her- 
self of  every  occasion  to  escape  to  the  kitchen,  where 
she  might  talk  to  Lizzie  and  Annie  about  the  play,  and 
explain  to  them  the  meaning  of  the  poster,  that  she  now 
understood  thoroughly.  Their  childish  looks  and  ques- 
tions soothed  the  emotions  that  were  burning  within  her. 

Thursday  morning  especially  seemed  interminable, 
but  at  last  the  long-watched  clock  on  their  staircase 
struck  the  wished-for  hour,  and  still  settling  their  bon- 
net-strings, Kate  and  Hender  strolled  in  the  direction 
of  the  theatre.  The  evening  was  dry  and  clear,  and 
over  an  embrasure  of  the  hills  beyond  Stoke  the  sun  was 
setting  in  a  red  and  yellow  mist.  The  streets  were  full 
of  people;  and  where  Piccadilly  opens  into  the  market- 
place, groups  and  couples  of  factory  girls  were  eagerly 
talking,  some  stretching  forward  in  a  pose  that  showed 
the  nape  of  the  neck  and  an  ear;  others,  graver  of  face, 
walking  straight  as  reeds  with  their  hands  on  their  hips, 
the  palms  flat,  and  the  fingers  half  encircling  the  nar- 
row waists. 

'  You  must  be  glad  to  get  out/  Hender  said.  '  To  be 
cooped  up  in  the  way  you  are!  I  couldn't  stand  it.' 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  131 

'  Well,  you  see,  I  can  enjoy  myself  all  the  more  when 
I  do  get  out/ 

Kate  would  have  liked  to  answer  more  tartly,  but  on 
second  thoughts  she  decided  it  was  not  worth  while. 
It  bored  her  to  be  reminded  of  the  humdrum  life  she 
led,  and  she  had  come  to  feel  ashamed  that  she  had  been 
to  the  theatre  only  twice  in  her  life,  especially  when  it 
was  mentioned  in  Dick's  presence. 

'  We're  too  soon,'  said  Hender,  breaking  in  jauntily  on 
Kate's  reflections ;  '  the  doors  aren't  open  yet.' 

'  I  can  see  that.' 

'But  what  are  you  so  cross  about?'  asked  Hender, 
who  was  not  aware  of  what  was  passing  in  her  em- 
ployer's mind. 

'  I'm  not  cross.  But  how  long  shall  we  have  to  wait? 
Mr.  Lennox  said  he'd  meet  us  here,  didn't  he?' 

'  Oh,  he  can't  be  long  now,  for  here  comes  Wentworth 
with  the  keys  to  open  the  doors.' 

The  street  they  were  in  branched  to  the  right  and  left 
rectangularly;  opposite  were  large  flat  walls,  red  in 
colour,  and  roofed  like  a  barn,  and  before  one  black 
doorway  some  fifty  or  sixty  people  had  collected.  The 
manager  pushed  his  way  through  the  crowd,  and  soon 
after,  like  a  snake  into  a  hole,  the  line  began  to  dis- 
appear. Hender  explained  that  this  was  the  way  to  the 
pit,  and  what  Kate  took  for  a  cellar  was  the  stage  en- 
trance. A  young  man  with  a  big  nose,  whom  she  recog- 
nized as  Mr.  Montgomery,  stared  at  them  as  he  passed; 
then  came  two  ladies — Miss  Leslie  and  Miss  Beaumont. 
Dick  did  not  appear  for  some  time  after,  but  at  last  the 
big  hat  was  seen  coming  along.  Although,  as  usual,  in 
a  great  hurry,  he  was  apparently  much  pleased  to  see 
them,  and  he  offered  Kate  his  arm  and  conducted  her 
across  the  street  into  the  theatre. 

'  You're  a  bit  early,  you  know.     The  curtain  doesn't 


132  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

go  up  for  half  an  hour  yet/  he  said,  as  they  ascended 
a  high  flight  of  steps,  at  the  top  of  which  sat  a  woman 
with  tickets  in  her  hand. 

'  We  were  afraid  of  being  too  late.' 

'  It  was  very  good  of  you  to  come.  I  hope  you'll 
have  a  pleasant  evening;  it  would  be  quite  a  treat  to  act 
when  you  were  in  the  house.' 

'  But  aren't  you  going  to  act,  sir?' 

'  You  mustn't  call  me  sir ;  everybody  calls  me  Dick, 
and  I  don't  know  anyone  who  has  a  better  right  to  do 
so  than  you.' 

'  But  aren't  you  going  to  act,  Di ?  I  can't  say 

it.' 

'  I  don't  call  it  acting.  I  come  on  in  the  first  act.  I 
just  do  that  to  save  the  salary,  for  you  know  I  have  an 
interest  in  the  tour.' 

Kate  had  no  idea  as  to  what  was  meant  by  having  '  an 
interest  in  the  tour,'  and  she  did  not  ask,  fearing  to 
waste  her  present  happiness  in  questions.  Her  atten- 
tion was  so  concentrated  on  the  big  man  by  her  side  that 
she  scarcely  knew  she  was  in  a  theatre,  and  had  as  yet 
perceived  neither  the  star-light  nor  the  drop-curtain. 
Dick  spoke  to  her  of  herself  and  of  himself,  but  he  said 
nothing  that  recalled  any  of  the  realities  of  her  life,  and 
when  he  suddenly  lifted  his  hand  from  hers  and  whis- 
pered, '  Here  comes  Miss  Hender :  we  mustn't  appear 
too  intimate  before  her,'  she  experienced  the  sensation 
of  one  awaking  out  of  a  most  delicious  dream. 

Hender  cast  a  last  retort  at  the  two  men  with  whom 
she  was  chaffing,  and,  descending  through  the  chairs, 
said: 

'  Mr.  Lennox,  you're  wanted  behind.' 

Dick  promised  to  see  them  again  when  the  act  was 
over,  and  hastened  away,  and  Hender,  settling  herself 
in  her  chair,  looked  at  Kate  in  a  way  which  said  as  dis- 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  133 

tinctly  as  words,  '  Well,  my  young  woman,  you  do  go 
it  when  you're  out  on  the  loose.'  But  she  refrained 
from  putting  her  thoughts  into  words,  possibly  because 
she  feared  to  turn  her  mistress  from  what  she  consid- 
ered, too  obviously,  indeed,  to  be  the  right  path. 

They  were  sitting  in  the  middle  division  of  a  gallery 
divided  into  three  parts,  where  the  twilight  was  broken 
by  the  yellow-painted  backs  of  the  chairs,  and  where  a 
series  of  mirrors,  framed  in  black  wood,  decorated  the 
walls,  reflecting  monotonously  different  small  corners  of 
the  house. 

Only  a  dozen  or  fifteen  people  had  as  yet  come  in, 
and  they  moved  about  like  melancholy  shades;  or,  when 
sitting  still,  seemed  like  ink-spots  on  a  dark  background. 

The  two  women  looked  down  into  the  great  pit, 
through  which  the  crowd  was  rolling  in  one  direction,  a 
sort  of  human  tide,  a  vague  tumult  in  which  little  was 
distinguishable;  a  bald  head  or  a  bunch  of  yellow 
flowers  in  a  woman's  bonnet  flashed  through  the  dark- 
ness for  an  instant  like  the  crest  of  a  wave.  A  dozen 
pale  jets  of  a  miserable  iron  gas-fitting  hanging  out  of 
the  shadows  of  the  roof  struggled  in  the  gloom,  leaving 
the  outlines  of  the  Muses  above  the  proscenium  as  un- 
definable  as  the  silhouettes  of  the  shopkeepers  in  the  pit. 
Over  against  the  shopkeepers  was  the  drop-curtain,  the 
centre  of  which  contained  a  romantic  picture  intended 
to  prepare  the  spectators  for  the  play  soon  to  begin. 
Kate  admired  the  lake,  and  during  the  long  interval  it 
seemed  to  her  bluer  and  more  beautiful  than  any  she 
had  ever  seen.  Along  the  shores  there  were  boats  with 
sailors  hoisting  sails,  and  she  began  to  wonder  what  was 
the  destination  of  these  boats,  if  the  sailors  were  leaving 
their  sweethearts  or  setting  forth  to  regain  them. 

It  seemed  to  Kate  that  the  play  was  never  going  to 
begin,  so  long  had  she  been  kept  waiting.  She  did  not 


134  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

consult  Hender,  but  possessed  her  soul  in  patience  till 
a  thin  young  man  came  up  from  under  the  stage,  push- 
ing his  glasses  higher  on  his  beak-like  nose.  He  took 
his  place  on  the  high  stool;  he  squared  his  shoulders; 
looked  around;  waved  his  stick.  The  sparkling  mar- 
riage chorus,  with  the  fanciful  peasants  and  the  still 
more  fanciful  bridegroom  in  silk,  the  bright  appearance 
of  Clairette  at  the  window,  and  the  sympathy  awakened 
by  her  love  for  the  devil-may-care  revolutionary  poet, 
seduced  Kate  like  a  sensual  dream;  and  in  all  she  saw 
and  felt  there  was  a  mingled  sense  of  nearness  and 
remoteness,  an  extraordinary  concentration,  and  an  ab- 
sence of  her  own  proper  individuality.  Never  had  she 
heard  such  music.  How  suave  it  was  compared  with  the 
austere  and  regular  rhythm  of  the  hymns  she  sang  in 
church!  The  gay  tripping  measure  of  the  market- 
woman's  song  filled  her  with  visions  and  laughter. 
There  was  an  accent  of  insincerity  in  the  serenade  that 
troubled  her  as  a  sudden  cloud  might  the  dreams  of  the 
most  indolent  of  lazzaroni,  but  the  beseeching  passion 
of  the  duet  revealed  to  her  sympathies  for  parting  lovers 
that  even  her  favourite  poetry  had  been  unable  to  do. 
All  her  musical  sensibilities  rushed  to  her  head  like 
wine;  it  was  only  by  a  violent  effort,  full  of  acute  pain, 
that  she  saved  herself  from  raising  her  voice  with  those 
of  the  singers,  and  dreading  a  giddiness  that  might  pre- 
cipitate her  into  the  pit,  she  remained  staring  blindly  at 
the  stage. 

Her  happiness  would  have  been  complete,  if  such  vio- 
lent emotions  can  be  called  happiness,  had  it  not  been 
for  Hender.  This  young  person,  actuated  probably  by 
a  desire  of  displaying  her  knowledge,  could  not  be  pre- 
vented from  talking.  As  each  actor  or  actress  entered 
she  explained  their  position  in  the  company,  and  all  she 
knew  of  their  habits  in  private  life.  Mr.  Mortimer's 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  135 

dispute  the  other  night  with  Bill,  the  scene-shifter, 
necessitated  quite  a  little  tirade  against  drunkenness, 
and  as  it  was  necessary  to  tell  of  what  had  been  said  in 
the  ladies'  dressing-room,  a  description  of  Miss  Beau- 
mont's underclothing  was  introduced;  it  was  very  ele- 
gant— silk  stockings  and  lace-trimmed  chemises ;  whereas 
Miss  Leslie's  was  declared  to  be  much  plainer.  Once 
or  twice  Hender  was  asked  to  keep  quiet,  but  Kate  did 
not  much  mind.  The  thunder  of  applause  which  rose 
from  a  pit  filled  with  noisy  factory  boys  and  girls  was 
accepted  in  good  faith,  and  it  floated  through  her  mind, 
elevating  and  exciting  her  emotions  as  the  roar  of  the 
breakers  on  the  shore  does  the  dreams  of  a  dreamer. 
But  the  star  she  was  expecting  had  not  yet  appeared. 
She  had  seen  Miss  Leslie,  Miss  Beaumont,  Joe  Morti- 
mer, and  Frank  Bret,  and  numberless  other  people,  who 
had  appeared  in  all  sorts  of  dresses  and  had  sung  all 
kinds  of  enchanting  songs,  but  Dick  was  nowhere  to  be 
found.  She  had  searched  vainly  for  him  in  the  maze 
of  colour  that  was  being  flashed  before  her  eyes.  Would 
he  appear  as  a  king,  a  monk,  a  shepherd,  or  would  he 
wear  a  cocked  hat?  She  did  not  know,  and  was  too  be- 
wildered to  think.  She  had  a  dim  notion  that  he  would 
do  something  wonderful,  set  everything  to  rights,  that 
they  would  all  bow  down  before  him  when  he  entered, 
and  she  watched  every  motion  of  the  crowd,  expecting  it 
every  moment  to  make  way  for  him.  But  he  did  not 
appear,  and  at  last  they  all  went  away  singing.  Her 
heart  sank  within  her,  but  just  when  she  had  begun  to 
lose  hope,  two  men  rushed  across  the  stage  and  com- 
menced to  spy  about  and  make  plans.  At  first  Kate  did 
not  recognize  her  lover,  so  completely  was  he  disguised, 
but  soon  the  dreadful  truth  commenced  to  dawn  upon 
her.  Oh,  misery !  Oh,  horror !  How  could  this  be  ? 
And  she  closed  her  eyes  to  shut  out  her  dreadful  dis- 
10 


136  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

appointment.  Why  had  he  done  this  thing?  She  had 
expected  a  king,  and  had  found  a  policeman. 

'  There  he  is,  there  he  is !'  whispered  Hender.  '  Don't 
you  see,  'tis  he  who  does  the  policeman?  A  French 
policeman !  He  drags  the  bride  away  at  the  end  of  the 
act,  you  know.' 

Poor  Kate  felt  very  unhappy  indeed.  Her  fanciful 
house  of  cards  had  fallen  down  and  crushed  her  under 
the  ruins.  She  felt  she  could  no  longer  take  an  interest 
in  anything.  The  rest  of  the  act  was  torture  to  her. 
What  pleasure  could  it  be  to  her  to  see  her  lover,  look- 
ing hideous,  drag  a  bride  away  from  her  intended? 

Kate  wished  that  her  lover  had  not  chosen  to  act  such 
a  part,  and  she  felt,  dimly,  perhaps,  but  intensely,  that 
it  was  incongruous  of  him  to  exhibit  himself  to  her  as 
a  policeman  who  at  the  end  of  the  act  dragged  the  bride 
away  from  her  intended.  And  she  could  not  under- 
stand why  he  should  have  chosen,  if  he  loved  her,  to 
dress  himself  in  such  very  unbecoming  clothes.  She 
thought  she  would  like  to  run  out  of  the  theatre,  but  that 
was  impossible.  But  when  Dick  came  to  her  at  the  fall 
of  the  curtain  and  sat  down  by  her  side  she  forgot  all 
about  the  foreign  policeman;  he  was  Dick  again. 

'  How  did  you  like  the  piece,  dear?' 

'  Very  much.'  It  was  on  her  tongue  to  ask  him  why 
he  had  chosen  to  play  the  policeman,  but  all  that  was 
over;  why  should  she  trouble  him  with  questions?  Yet 
the  question  in  her  mind  betrayed  itself,  for,  laying  his 
hand  affectionately  on  hers,  he  said  that  he  felt  that 
something  had  happened.  Hender,  who  had  seen  Dick 
take  Kate's  hand,  thought  that  this  was  a  moment  for 
her  to  escape,  but  Kate  begged  of  her  to  stay.  Hender, 
however,  feeling  that  her  absence  would  be  preferable 
to  her  company,  mentioned  that  she  must  go;  she  had  to 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  137 

speak  to  the  manager  on  some  business  which  she  had 
forgotten  till  now. 

'  Why  did  you  want  her  to  stay?'  said  Dick.  '  Don't 
you  like  being  alone  with  me?'  Kate  answered  him  with 
a  look,  wondering  all  the  while  what  could  have  induced 
lam  to  play  the  part  of  that  ugly  policeman.  '  I'm  sure 
you  didn't  like  the  piece,'  he  continued,  '  and  yet  I  must 
say  from  behind  it  seemed  to  go  very  well;  but  then 
there  are  so  many  things  you  miss  from  the  wings.' 

Kate  understood  nothing  of  what  he  said,  but  seeing 
that  he  was  terribly  sincere,  and  fearing  to  pain  him, 
she  hastened  to  give  the  piece  her  unqualified  approba- 
tion. 

'  I  assure  you  I  couldn't  have  liked  anything  more 
— the  music  was  so  pretty.' 

'  And  how  did  you  think  I  looked  ?  It's  only  a  small 
part,  you  know,  but  at  the  same  time  it  requires  to  be 
played.  If  there  isn't  some  go  put  into  it  the  finale 
all  goes  to  pot.' 

Now  Kate  felt  sure  he  was  quizzing  her,  and  at 
length  she  said,  the  desire  to  speak  her  mind  triumph- 
ing over  her  shyness,  '  But  why  did  you  make  yourself 
look  like  that?  It  wasn't  a  nice  part,  was  it?' 

'  It's  only  a  trumpery  bit  of  a  thing,  but  it  is  better 
for  me  to  take  it  than  have  another  salary  on  the  list. 
In  the  next  act,  you  know,  I  come  on  as  the  Captain  of 
the  Guard.' 

'  And  will  that  be  nice  ?'  Kate  asked,  her  face  flush- 
ing at  the  idea  of  seeing  her  lover  in  a  red  coat. 

'  Oh,  yes,  it  looks  well  enough,  but  it  isn't  an  acting 
part.  I'm  only  on  for  a  few  minutes.  I'm  only  sup- 
posed to  come  on  in  search  of  the  conspirators.  I  take 
a  turn  or  two  of  the  waltz  with  Miss  Beaumont,  who 
plays  Lange,  and  it's  all  over.  Have  you  ever  heard 
the  waltz?'  Kate  never  had;  so,  drawing  her  close  to 


138  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

him,  he  sang  the  soft  flowing  melody  in  her  ear.  In  her 
nervousness  she  squeezed  his  hand  passionately,  and 
this  encouraged  him  to  say,  '  How  I  wish  it  were  you 
that  I  had  to  dance  with !  How  nice  it  would  be  to  hold 
you  in  my  arms !  Would  you  like  to  be  in  my  arms  ?' 

Kate  looked  at  him  appealingly;  but  nothing  more 
was  said,  and  soon  after  Dick  remembered  he  had  to  get 
the  stage  ready  for  the  second  act.  As  he  hurried  away, 
Hender  appeared.  She  had  been  round  to  the  '  pub.' 
to  have  a  drink  with  Bill,  and  had  been  behind  talking 
to  her  ladies,  who,  as  she  said,  '  were  all  full  of  Dick's 
new  mash.' 

'  They've  seen  you,  and  are  as  jealous  as  a  lot  of 
cats.' 

'  It's  very  wicked  of  them  to  say  there's  anything  be- 
tween Mr.  Lennox  and  me,'  replied  Kate  angrily.  '  I 
suppose  they  think  everybody  is  like  themselves — a  lot 
of  actresses !' 

Hender  made  no  answer,  but  she  turned  up  her  nose 
at  what  she  considered  to  be  damned  insulting  to  the 
profession. 

However,  in  a  few  minutes  her  indignation  evapo- 
rated, and  she  called  Kate's  attention  to  what  a  splen- 
did house  it  was. 

'  I  can  tell  you  what;  with  a  shilling  pit,  a  six-penny 
gallery,  and  the  centre  and  side  circles  pretty  well  full, 
it  soon  runs  up.  There  must  be  nigh  on  seventy  pounds 
in — and  that  for  Thursday  night!' 

They  were  now  well  on  in  the  second  act.  The  bril- 
liancy of  the  '  Choeur  des  Merveilleuses,'  the  pleading 
pity  of  '  She  is  such  a  simple  little  thing,'  the  quaint 
drollery  of  the  conspirators,  made  Kate  forget  the  as- 
persions cast  on  Clairette's  character.  The  light  music 
foamed  in  her  head  like  champagne,  and  in  a  whirling 
sense  of  intoxication  a  vision  of  Dick  in  a  red  coat 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  139 

passed  and  repassed  before  her.  For  this  she  had  to 
wait  a  long  time,  but  at  last  the  sounds  of  trumpets 
were  heard,  and  those  on  the  stage  cried  that  the  sol- 
diers were  coming.  Kate's  heart  throbbed,  a  mist  swam 
before  her  eyes,  and  immediately  after  came  a  sense  of 
bright  calm;  for,  in  all  the  splendour  of  uniform,  Dick 
enterecf,  big  and  stately,  at  the  head  of  a  regiment  of 
girls  in  red  tights.  The  close-fitting  jacket  had  reduced 
his  size,  the  top-boots  gave  a  dignity  to  his  legs.  He 
was  doubtless  a  fine  man;  to  Kate  he  was  more  than  di- 
vine. Then  the  sweet  undulating  tune  he  had  sung  in 
her  ears  began,  and  casting  a  glance  of  explanation  in 
the  direction  of  the  gallery,  he  put  his  arm  round  Miss 
Beaumont's  waist.  The  action  caused  Kate  a  heart- 
pang,  but  the  strangeness  of  the  scene  she  was  witness- 
ing distracted  her  thoughts.  For  immediately  the  other 
actors  and  actresses  in  their  startling  dresses  selected 
partners,  and  the  stage  seemed  transformed  into  a  won- 
derful garden  of  colour  swinging  to  the  music  of  a  foun- 
tain that,  under  the  inspiration  of  the  moonlight,  broke 
from  its  monotonous  chant  into  rhythmical  variations. 
Dick,  like  a  great  tulip  in  his  red  uniform,  turned  in 
the  middle,  and  Miss  Beaumont,  in  her  long  yellow 
dress,  sprawled  upon  him.  Her  dress  was  open  at  both 
sides,  and  each  time  she  passed  in  front,  Kate,  filled 
with  disgust,  strove  not  to  see  the  thick  pink  legs,  which 
were  visible  to  the  knees.  Miss  Leslie  in  her  bride's 
dress  bloomed  a  lily  white,  as  she  danced  with  a  man 
whose  red  calves  and  thighs  seemed  prolonged  into  his 
very  chest.  La  Rivodiere  cast  despairing  glances  at 
Lange,  poor  Pomponet  strove  to  get  to  his  bride,  and 
all  the  blonde  wigs  and  black  collars  of  the  conspirators 
were  mixed  amid  the  strange  poke  bonnets  of  the  ladies, 
and  the  long  swallow-tailed  coats,  reaching  almost  to 
the  ground,  flapped  in  and  out  of  the  legs  of  the  female 


140  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

soldiers.  Kate  smiled  feebly  and  drank  in  the  music 
of  the  waltz.  It  was  played  over  again;  like  a  caged 
canary's  song  it  haunted  Clairette's  orange-blossoms; 
like  the  voluptuous  thrill  of  a  nightingale  singing  in  a 
rose-garden  it  flowed  about  Lange's  heavy  draperies  and 
glistening  bosom;  like  the  varied  chant  of  the  mocking 
bird  it  came  from  under  Ange  Pitou's  cocked  hat.  It 
was  sung  separately  and  in  unison,  and  winding  and 
unwinding  itself,  it  penetrated  into  the  deepest  recesses 
of  Kate's  mind.  It  seduced  like  a  deep  slow  perfume; 
it  caressed  with  the  long  undulations  of  a  beautiful 
snake  and  the  mystery  of  a  graceful  cat;  it  whispered 
of  fair  pleasure  places,  where  scent,  music,  and  love 
are  one,  where  lovers  never  grow  weary,  and  where 
kisses  endure  forever.  She  was  conscious  of  deep  self- 
contentment,  of  dreamy  idleness,  of  sad  languor,  and 
the  charm  to  which  she  abandoned  herself  resembled 
the  enervations  of  a  beautiful  climate,  the  softness  of  a 
church;  she  yearned  for  her  lover  and  the  fanciful  life 
of  which  he  was  the  centre,  as  one  might  for  some  ideal 
fatherland.  The  current  of  the  music  carried  her  far 
away,  far  beyond  the  great  hills  into  a  land  of  sleep, 
dream,  and  haze,  and  a  wonderful  tenderness  swam 
within  her  as  loose  and  as  dim  as  the  green  sea  depths, 
that  a  wave  never  stirs.  She  struggled,  but  it  was  only 
as  one  in  a  dream  strives  to  lift  himself  out  of  the  power 
that  holds;  and  when  the  conductor  waved  his  stick  for 
the  last  time,  and  the  curtain  came  down  amid  deafen- 
ing applause,  irritated  and  enervated,  she  shrank  from 
Hender,  as  if  anxious  not  to  be  wholly  awakened. 

The  third  act  passed  she  scarcely  knew  how.  She 
was  overborne  and  over-tempted ;  all  her  blood  seemed 
to  be  in  her  head  and  heart,  and  from  time  to  time  she 
was  shaken  with  quick  shudderings. 

When  Dick  came  to  see  her  she  scarcely  understood 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  141 

what  he  said  to  her,  and  it  annoyed  her  not  to  be  able 
to  answer  him.  When  the  word  love  was  pronounced 
she  smiled,  but  her  smile  was  one  of  pain,  and  she  could 
not  rouse  herself  from  a  sort  of  sad  ecstasy.  Gay  as  the 
tunes  were,  there  was  in  every  one  a  sort  of  inherent 
sadness  which  she  felt  but  could  not  explain  to  Dick, 
who  began  to  think  that  she  was  disappointed  in  the 
piece. 

'  Disappointed !  Oh,  no/  she  said,  and  they  stood 
for  a  long  while  staring  at  a  large  golden  moon,  light- 
ing up  the  street  like  a  bull's-eye. 

'  How  nice  it  is  to  be  here  out  of  that  hot,  stuffy 
theatre !'  said  Dick,  putting  his  arm  around  her. 

'  Oh,  do  you  think  so  ?  I  could  listen  to  that  music 
forever.' 

'It  is  pretty,  isn't  it?  I'm  so  glad  you  liked  it.  I 
told  you  the  waltz  was  lovely.' 

'  Lovely !  I  should  think  so.  I  shall  never  forget 
it.' 

She  lost  her  habitual  shyness  in  her  enthusiasm,  and 
sang  the  first  bars  with  her  face  raised  towards  her 
lover's;  then,  gaining  courage  from  his  look  of  aston- 
ishment and  pleasure,  she  gave  all  the  modulations  with 
her  full  voice. 

'  By  Jove !  you're  a  deuced  nice  soprano,  and  a  devil- 
ish good  ear  too.  'Pon  my  soul,  you  sing  that  waltz 
as  well  as  Beaumont.' 

'  Oh,  Dick,  you  mustn't  laugh  at  me.' 
'I  swear  I'm  not  laughing.     Sing  it  again;  nobody's 
listening.' 

They  were  standing  in  the  shade  of  a  large  ware- 
house, the  line  of  slates  making  a  crescent  of  the  full 
moon;  and  amid  the  reverberating  yards  and  brickways 
Kate's  voice  sounded  as  penetrating  and  direct  as  a 
flute.  The  exquisite  accuracy  of  her  ear  enabled  her 


142  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

to  give  each  note  its  just  value.  Dick  was  astonished, 
and  he  said  when  she  had  finished: 

'  I  really  don't  want  to  flatter  you,  but  with  a  little 
teaching  you  would  sing  far  better  than  Beaumont. 
Your  ear  is  perfect;  it's  the  production  of  the  voice  that 
wants  looking  to.'  And  he  talked  to  her  of  the  different 
tunes,  listening  to  what  she  had  to  say,  and  encouraging 
her  to  recall  the  music  she  had  heard.  He  would  beg 
her  to  repeat  a  phrase  after  him;  he  taught  her  how  to 
emphasize  the  rhythm,  and  was  anxious  that  she  should 
learn  the  legend  of  Madame  Angot. 

'  Now,'  said  Dick,  '  I'll  sing  the  symphony,  and  we'll 
go  through  it  with  all  the  effects — one,  two,  three,  four, 
ta  ra  ta  ta  ta  ta  ta.' 

But  as  Kate  attacked  the  first  bar  it  was  taken  up 
by  three  or  four  male  voices,  the  owners  of  which,  judg- 
ing by  the  sound,  could  not  be  more  than  forty  or  fifty 
yards  away. 

'  Here's  Montgomery,  Joe  Mortimer,  and  all  that  lot. 
I  wouldn't  be  caught  here  with  you  for  anything.' 

'  By  going  up  this  passage  we  can  get  home  in  two 
minutes.' 

'  Can  we?  Well,  let's  cut;  but  no,  they're  too  close 
on  us.  Do  you  go,  dear;  I'll  remain  and  tell  them  it 
was  a  lady  singing  out  of  that  window.  Here,  take  my 
latchkey.  Off  you  go.' 

Without  another  word  Kate  fled  down  the  alley,  and 
Dick  was  left  to  explain  whatever  he  pleased  concern- 
ing the  mythical  lady  whom  he  declared  he  had  been 
serenading. 

When  Kate  arrived  home  that  night  she  lay  awake 
for  hours,  tossing  restlessly,  her  brain  whirling  with 
tunes  and  parts  of  tunes.  The  conspirators'  chorus,  the 
waltz  song,  the  legend,  and  a  dozen  disconnected  frag- 
ments of  the  opera  all  sang  together  in  her  ears,  and 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  143 

in  her  insomnia  she  continued  to  take  singing  lessons 
from  Dick.  She  was  certain  that  he  loved  her,  and  the 
enchantment  of  her  belief  murmured  in  her  ears  all 
night  long;  and  when  she  met  Hender  next  morning, 
the  desire  to  speak  of  Dick  burnt  her  like  a  great  thirst, 
and  it  was  not  until  Hender  left  her  to  go  to  the  theatre 
that  she  began  to  realize  in  all  its  direct  brutality  the 
fact  that  on  the  morrow  she  would  have  to  bid  him  good- 
bye, perhaps  for  ever. 

Her  husband  wheezed  on  the  sofa,  her  mother-in-law 
read  the  Bible,  sitting  bolt  upright  in  the  arm-chair, 
and  the  shaded  lamp  covered  the  table  with  light,  and 
fearing  she  might  be  provoked  into  shrieks  or  some  vio- 
lent manifestation  of  temper,  she  went  to  bed  as  early 
as  she  could.  But  there  her  torments  became  still  more 
intolerable.  All  sorts  of  ideas  and  hallucinations,  mag- 
nified and  distorted,  filled  her  brain,  rendered  astonish- 
ingly clear  by  the  effects  of  insomnia.  She  saw  over 
again  the  murders  she  had  read  of  in  her  novels,  and  her 
imagination  supplied  details  the  author  had  not  dreamed 
of.  The  elopements,  with  all  their  paraphernalia  of 
moonlight  and  roses,  came  back  to  her.  .  .  .  But  if  she 
were  never  to  see  him  again — if  it  were  her  fate  to  lie 
beside  her  husband  always,  to  the  end  of  her  life !  She 
buried  her  head  in  the  pillows  in  the  hopes  of  shutting 
out  the  sound  of  his  snores. 

At  last  she  felt  him  moving,  and  a  moment  afterwards 
she  heard  him  say,  '  There's  Mr.  Lennox  at  the  door ; 
he  can't  get  in.  Do  go  down  and  open  it  for  him.' 

'Why  don't  you  go  yourself?'  she  answered,  starting 
up  into  a  sitting  position. 

'  How  am  I  to  go  ?  You  don't  want  me  to  catch  my 
death  at  the  front  door  ?'  Ralph  replied  angrily. 

Kate  did  not  answer,  but  quickly  tying  a  petticoat 
about  her,  and  wrapping  herself  in  her  dressing-gown, 


144.  A   MUMMER'S   WIFE 

\ 

she  went  downstairs.  It  was  quite  dark,  and  she  had 
to  feel  her  way  along  the  passage.  But  at  last  she  found 
and  pulled  back  the  latch,  and  when  the  white  gleam 
of  moonlight  entered  she  retreated  timidly  behind  the 
door. 

'I'm  so  sorry/  said  Dick,  trying  to  see  who  the  con- 
cealed figure  was,  '  but  I  forgot  my  latchkey/ 

'  It  doesn't  matter/  said  Kate. 

'  Oh,  it's  you,  dear.  I've  been  trying  to  get  home  all 
day  to  see  you,  but  couldn't.  Why  didn't  you  come 
down  to  the  theatre?' 

'  You  know  that  I  can't  do  as  I  like/ 

'  Well,  never  mind ;  don't  be  cross ;  give  me  a  kiss/ 

Kate  shrunk  back,  but  Dick  took  her  in  his  arms. 
'  You  were  in  bed,  then  ?'  he  said,  chuckling. 

'  Yes,  but  you  must  let  me  go.' 

'  I  should  like  never  to  let  you  go  again/ 

'  But  you're  leaving  to-morrow.' 

'  Not  unless  you  wish  me  to,  dear/ 

Kate  did  not  stop  to  consider  the  impossibility  of  his 
fulfilling  his  promise,  and,  her  heart  beating,  she  went 
upstairs.  On  the  first  landing  he  stopped  her,  and  lay- 
ing his  hand  on  her  arm,  said,  '  And  would  you  really 
be  very  glad  if  I  were  to  stay  with  you?' 

'  You  know  I  would,  Dick/ 

They  could  not  see  each  other,  and  after  a  long 
silence  she  said,  '  We  mustn't  stop  here  talking.  Mrs. 
Ede  sleeps,  you  know,  in  the  room  at  the  back  of  the 
workroom,  and  she  might  hear  us.' 

'  Then  come  into  the  sitting-room/  said  Dick,  taking 
her  hands  and  drawing  her  towards  him. 

'  I  cannot.' 

'  I  love  you  better  than  anyone  in  the  world/ 

'  No,  no ;  why  should  you  love  me  ?' 

'  Let  us  prove  our  love  one  to  the  other/  he  mur- 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  145 

mured,  and  frightened,  but  at  the  same  time  delighted 
by  the  words,  she  allowed  him  to  draw  her  into  his  room. 

'  My  husband  will  miss  me/  she  said  as  the  door 
closed,  but  she  could  think  no  more  of  him;  he  was  for- 
gotten in  a  sudden  delirium  of  the  senses;  and  for  what 
seemed  to  him  like  half  an  hour  Ralph  waited,  asking 
himself  what  his  wife  could  be  doing  all  that  time,  think- 
ing that  perhaps  it  was  not  Lennox  after  all,  but  some 
rambling  vagrant  who  had  knocked  at  the  door,  and 
that  he  had  better  go  down  and  rescue  his  wife.  He 
would  have  done  so  had  he  not  been  afraid  of  a  sudden 
draught,  and  while  wondering  what  was  happening  he 
dozed  away,  to  be  awakened  a  few  minutes  afterwards 
by  voices  on  the  landing. 

'  Let  me  go,  Dick,  let  me  go ;  my  husband  will  miss 
me.'  She  passed  away  from  him  and  entered  her  hus- 
band's room,  and  Ralph  said :  '  Well,  who  was  it  ?' 

'  Mr.  Lennox/  she  answered. 

'  Our  lodger/  Ralph  murmured,  and  fell  asleep 
again. 


'  Is  this  the  stage  entrance?' 

'  Yes,  ma'am.  You  see  during  the  performance  the 
real  stage-door  is  used  as  a  pit  entrance,  and  we  pass 
under  the  stage.' 

This  explanation  was  given  after  a  swaggering  atti- 
tude had  been  assumed,  and  a  knowing  wink,  the  coun- 
tersign for  '  Now  I'm  going  to  do  something  for  your 
amusement,'  had  been  bestowed  on  his  pals.  The 
speaker,  a  rough  man  with  a  beard  and  a  fez  cap,  be- 
came the  prominent  figure  of  a  group  loitering  before  a 
square  hole  with  an  earthward  descent,  cut  in  the  wall 
of  the  Hanley  Theatre. 

Kate  was  too  occupied  with  her  own  thoughts  to  no- 
tice that  she  was  being  laughed  at,  and  she  said  in- 
stantly, '  I  want  to  see  Mr.  Lennox ;  will  you  tell  him 
I'm  here?' 

'  Mr.  Lennox  is  on  the  stage ;  unless  yer  on  in  the 
piece  I  don't  see  'ow  it's  to  be  done.' 

At  this  rebuff  Kate  looked  round  the  grinning  faces, 
but  at  that  moment  a  rough-looking  fellow  of  the  same 
class  as  the  speaker  ascended  from  the  cellar-like  open- 
ing, and  after  nudging  his  '  pal,'  touched  his  cap,  and 
said  with  the  politeness  of  one  who  had  been  tipped, 
'  This  way,  marm.  Mr.  Lennox  is  on  the  stage,  but  if 
you'll  wait  a  minute  I'll  tell  'im  yer  'ere.  Take  care, 

146 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  147 

marm,  or  yer'll  slip;  very  arkerd  place  to  get  down, 
with  all  'em  baskets  in  the  way.  This  company  do 
travel  with  a  deal  of  luggage.  That's  Mr.  Lennox's — 
the  one  as  yer  'and  is  on.' 

'  Oh,  indeed !'  Kate  said,  stopping  on  her  way  to  read 
Mr.  Lennox's  name  on  the  basket. 

'  We  piles  'em  'gainst  that  'ere  door  so  as  to  'ave  'em 
'andy  for  sending  down  to  the  station  ter-morrow  morn- 
ing. But  if  you  will  remain  here  a  moment,  marm,  I'll 
run  up  on  the  stage  and  see  if  I  can  see  'im.' 

The  mention  made  by  the  scene-shifter  of  the  ap- 
proaching removal  of  Dick's  basket  frightened  her,  and 
she  remembered  that  she  had  scarcely  spoken  to  him 
since  last  night.  He  had  been  obliged  to  go  out  in  the 
morning  before  breakfast;  and  though  he  had  tried  hard 
to  meet  her  during  the  course  of  the  day,  fate  seemed 
to  be  against  them. 

She  was  in  a  large,  low-roofed  storeroom  with  an 
earthen  floor.  The  wooden  ceiling  was  supported  by  an 
endless  number  of  upright  posts  that  gave  the  place  the 
appearance  of  a  ship.  At  the  farther  end  there  were 
two  stone  staircases  leading  to  opposite  sides  of  the 
stage.  In  front  of  her  were  a  drum  and  barrel,  and  the 
semi-darkness  at  the  back  was  speckled  over  with  the 
sparkling  of  the  gilt  tinsel  stuff  used  in  pantomimes; 
a  pair  of  lattice-windows,  a  bundle  of  rapiers,  a  cradle 
and  a  breastplate,  formed  a  group  in  the  centre ;  a 
broken  trombone  lay  at  her  feet.  The  odour  of  size  that 
the  scenery  exhaled  reminded  her  of  Ralph's  room;  and 
she  wondered  if  the  swords  were  real,  what  different 
uses  the  tinsel  paper  might  be  put  to;  until  she  would 
awake  from  her  dream,  asking  herself  bitterly  why  he 
did  not  come  down  to  see  her.  In  the  pause  that  fol- 
lowed the  question,  she  was  startled  by  a  prolonged 
shout  from  the  chorus.  The  orchestra  seemed  to  be  go- 


148  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

ing  mad;  the  drum  was  thumped,  the  cymbals  were 
clashed,  and  back  and  forward  rushed  the  noisy  feet, 
first  one  way,  then  the  other;  a  soprano  voice  was  heard 
for  a  moment  clear  and  distinct,  and  was  drowned  im- 
mediately after  in  a  general  scream.  What  could  it 
mean?  Had  the  place  taken  fire?  Kate  asked  herself 
wildly. 

'  The  finale  of  the  act  '  as  begun,  marm  ;  Mr.  Lennox 
will  be  hoff  the  stage  directly.' 

'  Has  nothing  happened?     Is  the  -  ?' 

The  scene-shifter's  look  of  astonishment  showed  Kate 
that  she  was  mistaken,  but  before  they  had  time  to  ex- 
change many  words,  the  trampling  and  singing  overhead 
suddenly  ceased,  and  the  muffled  sound  of  clapping  and 
applause  was  heard  in  the  distance. 

'  There's  the  act,'  said  Bill  ;  '  he'll  be  down  now  im- 
mediately; he'll  take  no  call  for  the  perliceman,'  and 
a  moment  after  a  man  attired  in  knee-breeches,  with  a 
huge  cravat  wound  several  times  round  his  throat,  came 
running  down  the  stone  staircase.  '  Oh,  'ere  he  is,'  said 
Bill.  '  I'll  leave  yer  now,  marm.' 

'  And  so  you  found  your  way,  dear  ?'  said  Dick,  put- 
ting out  his  arm  to  draw  Kate  towards  him. 

But  he  looked  so  very  strange  with  the  great  patches 
of  coarse  red  on  his  cheeks,  and  the  deep  black  lines 
drawn  about  his  eyes,  that  she  could  not  conceal  her 
repulsion,  and  guessing  the  cause  of  her  embarrassment, 
he  said,  laughing: 

'  Ah  !  I  see  you  don't  know  me  !  A  good  make-up, 
isn't  it  ?  I  took  a  lot  of  trouble  with  it.' 

Kate  made  no  answer;  but  the  sound  of  his  voice 
soothed  her,  and  she  leaned  upon  his  arm. 

'  Give  me  a  kiss,  dear,  before  we  go  up,'  he  said  coax- 


Kate  looked  at  him  curiously,  and  then,  laughing  at 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  149 

her  own  foolishness,  said,  '  Wait  until  you  have  the  sol- 
dier's dress  on.' 

At  the  top  of  the  staircase  the  piled-up  side-scenes 
made  so  many  ways  and  angles  that  Kate  had  to  keep 
close  to  Dick  for  fear  of  getting  lost.  However,  at  last 
they  arrived  in  the  wings,  where  gaslights  were  burning 
blankly  on  the  whitewashed  walls.  A  crowd  of  loud- 
voiced,  perspiring  girls  in  short  fancy  petticoats  and 
with  bare  necks  and  arms,  pushed  their  way  towards  the 
mysterious  and  ladder-like  staircases  and  scrambled  up 
them.  Ange  Pitou  had  taken  off  his  cocked  hat  and  was 
sharing  a  pint  of  beer  with  Clairette.  It  being  her  turn 
to  drink,  she  said: 

'  Noe,  hold  my  skirts  in,  there's  a  dear ;  this  beer 
plays  the  devil  with  white  satin.' 

'  It  isn't  on  your  skirts  it  will  go  if  you  spill  it,'  Ange 
replied,  '  but  into  your  bosom.  Stop  a  second,  and  I'll 
give  the  bottom  of  the  pot  a  wipe,  then  you'll  be  all 
right.' 

In  the  meanwhile  Pomponet  and  La  Rivodiere  were 
engaged  in  a  violent  quarrel. 

'Just  you  understand,'  shouted  Mortimer:  'if  you 
want  to  do  any  clowning  you'd  better  fill  your  wig  with 
sawdust.  It  had  better  be  stuffed  with  something.' 

This  sally  was  received  with  smacks  of  approbation 
from  a  circle  of  supers,  who  were  waiting  in  the  hopes 
of  hearing  some  spirited  dialogue. 

'  Clowning!  And  what  can  you  do?  I  suppose  your 
line  is  the  legitimate.  Go  and  play  Don  John  again, 
and  you'll  read  us  the  notices  in  the  morning.' 

'  Notices  .  .  .  talking  of  notices,  you  never  had  one, 
except  one  to  quit  from  your  landlady,  poor  woman !' 
replied  Mortimer  in  his  most  nasal  intonation  of  voice. 

Enchanted  at  this  witticism,  the  supers  laughed,  and 


150  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

poor  Dubois  would  have  been  utterly  done  for  if  Dick 
had  not  interposed. 

'  What  do  you  think,  dear?'  he  said,  drawing  her 
aside ;  '  shall  I  go  and  make  my  change  now  ?  I  don't 
come  on  till  the  end  of  the  act,  and  we'll  be  able  to  talk 
without  interruption  till  then.' 

She  had  expected  him  to  explain  the  rights  and 
wrongs  of  that  terrible  quarrel  that  so  providentially 
had  passed  off  without  bloodshed,  and  he  seemed  to  have 
forgotten  all  about  it. 

'  But  thos.e  two  gentlemen — the  actors — what  will 
happen?  Are  they  going  to  go  away?' 

'  Lord,  no !  of  course  it  is  riling  to  have  a  fellow  mug- 
ging behind  you  with  his  wig  when  you're  speaking,  but 
one  must  go  in  for  a  bit  of  extra  clowning  on  Saturday 
night.' 

All  this  was  Greek  to  her,  and  before  she  could  ask 
Dick  to  explain  he  had  darted  down  a  passage.  When 
he  was  with  her  it  was  well  enough,  but  the  moment  his 
protection  was  withdrawn  all  her  old  fears  returned  to 
her.  She  did  not  know  where  to  stand.  The  scene- 
shifters  had  come  to  carry  away  the  scenes  that  were 
piled  up  in  her  corner,  and  one  of  the  huge  slips  had 
nearly  fallen  on  her.  A  troop  of  girls  in  single  coloured 
gowns  and  poke  bonnets  had  stopped  to  stare  at  her. 
She  remembered  their  appearance  from  Thursday,  but 
she  had  not  seen  their  vulgar,  everyday  eyes,  nor  heard 
until  now  their  coarse,  everyday  laughs  and  jokes. 
Amid  this  group  Lange,  fat  and  lumpy,  perorated. 

'  The  most  beastly  place  I  ever  was  in,  my  dear.  I 
always  dread  the  week  here.  Just  look  round  the  house. 
I  don't  believe  there's  a  man  in  front  who  has  a  quid  in 
his  pocket.  Now  at  Liverpool  there  are  lots  of  nice 
men.  You  should  have  seen  the  things  I  had  sent  me 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  151 

when  I  was  there  with  Harrington's  company — and  the 
bouquets !  There  were  flowers  left  for  me  every  day.' 

What  all  this  meant  Kate  did  not  know,  and  she  did 
not  care  to  guess.  For  a  moment  the  strange  world  she 
found  herself  in  had  distracted  her  thoughts,  but  it  could 
do  so  no  longer;  no,  not  if  it  were  ten  times  as  strange. 
What  did  she  care  for  these  actresses?  What  was  it  to 
her  what  they  said  or  what  they  thought  of  her?  She 
had  come  to  look  after  her  lover;  that  was  her  business, 
and  that  only.  He  was  going  away  to-morrow,  and 
they  had  arranged  nothing!  She  did  not  know  whether 
he  was  going  to  remain,  or  if  he  expected  her  to  follow 
him.  She  hated  the  people  around  her;  she  hated  them 
for  their  laughter,  for  their  fine  clothes;  she  hated  them 
above  all  because  they  were  all  calling  for  him.  It  was 
Mr.  Lennox  here  and  Dick  there.  What  did  they  want 
with  him?  Could  they  do  nothing  without  him?  It 
seemed  to  her  that  they  were  all  mocking  her,  and  she 
hated  them  for  it. 

The  stage  was  now  full  of  women.  The  men  stood 
in  the  wings  or  ran  to  the  ends  of  distant  passages  and 
called,  'Dick,  Dick,  Dick!' 

The  orchestra  had  ceased  playing,  and  the  noise  in 
front  of  the  curtain  was  growing  every  moment  angrier 
and  louder. 

At  last  Dick  appeared,  looking  splendid  in  red  tights 
and  Hessian  boots.  He  caught  hold  of  two  or  three 
girls,  changed  their  places,  peeped  to  see  if  Montgom- 
ery was  all  right,  and  gave  the  signal  to  ring  up. 

But  once  the  curtain  was  raised,  he  was  surrounded 
by  half  a  dozen  persons  all  wanting  to  speak  to  him. 
Ridding  himself  of  them  he  contrived  to  get  to  Kate's 
side,  but  they  had  not  exchanged  half  a  dozen  words 
before  the  proprietor  asked  if  he  could  '  have  a  moment.' 
Then  Hender  turned  up,  and  begged  of  Kate  to  come 
11 


152  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

and  see  the  dressing-rooms,  but  fearing  to  miss  him,  she 
declared  she  preferred  to  stay  where  she  was.  Never- 
theless, it  was  difficult  not  to  listen  to  her  friend's  ex- 
planations as  to  what  was  passing  on  the  stage,  and  in 
one  of  these  unguarded  moments  Dick  disappeared.  It 
was  heart-breaking,  but  she  could  do  nothing  but  wait 
until  he  came  back.  Like  an  iron,  the  idea  that  she  was 
about  to  lose  her  lover  forced  itself  deeper  into  her 
heart.  The  fate  of  her  life  was  hanging  in  the  balance, 
and  the  few  words  that  were  to  decide  it  were  being  de- 
layed time  after  time,  by  things  of  no  importance.  Dick 
had  now  returned,  and  was  talking  with  the  gasman,  who 
wanted  to  know  if  the  extra  '  hand  '  he  had  engaged  was 
to  be  paid  by  the  company  or  the  management.  Every 
now  and  again  an  actress  or  an  actor  would  rush 
through  the  wings  and  stare  at  her;  sometimes  it  was 
the  whole  chorus,  headed  by  Miss  Beaumont,  whose 
rude  remarks  reached  her  ears  frequently. 

She  tried  to  retreat,  but  the  rude. eyes  and  words  fol- 
lowed her.  Occasionally  the  voice  of  the  prompter  was 
heard:  '  Now  then,  ladies,  silence  if  you  please;  I  can't 
hear  what's  being  said  on  the  stage.'  No  one  listened 
to  him,  and,  like  animals  in  a  fair,  they  continued  to 
crush  and  to  crowd  in  the  passage  between  the  wings 
and  the  whitewashed  wall.  A  tall,  fat  girl  stood  close 
by;  her  hand  was  on  her  sword,  which  she  slapped 
slowly  against  her  thighs.  The  odour  of  hair,  cheap 
scent,  necks,  bosoms  and  arms  was  overpowering,  and 
to  Kate's  sense  of  modesty  there  was  something  revolt- 
ing in  this  loud  display  of  body.  A  bugle  call  was  soon 
sounded  in  the  orchestra,  and  this  was  the  signal  for 
much  noise  and  bustle.  The  conspirators  rushed  off  the 
stage,  threw  aside  their  cloaks,  and  immediately  after 
the  soft,  curling  strains  of  the  waltz  were  heard;  then 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  153 

the  bugle  was  sounded  again,  and  the  girls  began  to 
tramp. 

'  Cue  for  soldiers'  entrance/  shouted  the  prompter. 

'  Now  then,  ladies,  are  you  ready?'  cried  Dick,  as  he 
put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  army. 

'  Yes,'  was  murmured  all  along  the  line,  and  seeing 
her  hero  marching  away  at  the  head  of  so  many  women, 
any  one  of  whom  he  could  have  had  for  the  asking,  it 
crossed  her  mind  that  it  was  unnatural  for  him  to  stoop 
to  her,  a  poor  little  dressmaker  of  Hanley,  who  did  not 
know  anything  except,  perhaps,  how  to  stitch  the  seams 
of  a  skirt.  But  after  what  had  befallen  her  last  night, 
it  did  not  seem  possible  that  her  fate  was  to  be  left  be- 
hind, stitching  beside  Render  and  the  two  little  girls, 
Annie  and  Lizzie;  stitching  bodice  after  bodice,  skirt 
after  skirt,  till  the  end  of  her  days,  remembering  always 
something  that  had  come  into  her  life  suddenly  and  had 
gone  out  of  it  suddenly.  '  It  cannot  be,'  she  cried  out 
to  herself — '  it  cannot  be !'  And  she  remembered  that 
he  had  said  that  her  ear  was  true,  and  her  voice  as  pure 
as  Leslie's.  '  A  little  throaty,'  he  had  said,  '  but  that 
can  be  improved.'  What  he  meant  by  throaty  she  did 
not  know,  but  no  matter;  and  to  convince  herself  that 
he  had  spoken  truly  she  sang  the  refrain  of  the  waltz 
till  the  gasman  pulled  a  rope  and  brought  the  curtain 
down.  She  was  about  to  rush  on  the  stage  to  speak  to 
Dick,  but  the  gasman  stopped  her. 

'  You  must  wait  a  moment,  there's  a  call,'  he  said. 
Up  went  the  curtain ;  the  house  burst  into  loud  ap- 
plause. Down  went  the  curtain;  up  it  went  again.  This 
time  only  the  principals  came  on,  and  while  they  were 
bowing  and  smiling  to  the  audience  a  great  herd  of 
females  poured  through  the  wings,  and  Kate  found  her- 
self again  among  courtesans,  conspirators,  seducers,  and 
wandering  minstrels. 


154  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  Who  is  she?'  they  asked  as  they  went  by.  And  Kate 
heard  somebody  answer,  '  A  spoon  of  Dick's,'  and  un- 
able to  endure  the  coarse  jeering  faces,  which  the 
strange  costumes  seemed  to  accentuate,  she  took  advan- 
tage of  a  sudden  break  in  the  ranks  and  ran  through  the 
wings  towards  the  back  of  the  stage. 

'What's  the  matter,  dear?'  he  said,  drawing  her  to 
him. 

'  Oh,  Dick,  you  shouldn't  neglect  me  as  you  do!  I've 
been  waiting  here  among  those  horrid  girls  nearly  an 
hour  for  you,  and  you're  talking  to  everybody  but  me.' 

'  It  wasn't  my  fault,  dear ;  I  was  on  in  the  last  act. 
They  couldn't  have  finished  it  without  me.' 

'  I  don't  know,  I  don't  know;  but  you're  going  away 
to-morrow,  and  I  shall  never  see  you  again.  It's  very 
hard  on  me  that  this  last  night — night — that ' 

'  Now,  don't  cry  like  that,  dear.  I  tell  you  what. 
It's  impossible  to  talk  here;  everybody's  after  me.  I'll 
take  off  these  things  and  we'll  go  for  a  walk  through  the 
town — will  that  do?  I  know  we've  a  lot  of  things  to 
speak  about.' 

The  serious  way  in  which  he  spoke  this  last  phrase 
brought  courage  to  Kate,  and  she  strove  to  calm  herself, 
but  she  was  sobbing  so  heavily  that  she  could  not 
answer. 

'  Well,  you'll  wait  here,  dear ;  no  one  will  disturb  you, 
and  I  shan't  be  above  two  minutes.' 

Kate  nodded  her  head  in  reply,  and  five  minutes  after 
they  were  walking  up  the  street  together. 

'  How  did  you  get  out,  dear?     Did  they  see  you?' 

'  No;  Ralph  is  bad  with  his  asthma,  and  mother  is  sit- 
ting upstairs  with  him.  I  said  I  had  some  sewing  to 
do.  ...  Oh,  Dick,  I  cannot  bear  to  think  that  you're 
going  away,  and  that  I  shall  never  see  you  again.' 

'  Yes,  you  will,  dear,'  he  answered  cheerfully.     '  Now 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  155 

I  wonder  if  your  husband  would  consent  to  your  going 
on  the  stage?' 

'  Who  would  do  the  dressmaking  for  him?'  she  asked. 
'  He  talks  about  the  business,  but  we  would  be  starving 
if  we  relied  upon  what  we  sell.'  And  stopping  from 
time  to  time  as  their  talk  grew  more  earnest,  they 
strolled  through  the  crowded  streets,  Kate  hanging  on 
Dick's  arm,  her  face  inspiring  the  jeers  of  the  factory 
girls. 

'  I  wouldn't  kiss  here  if  I  were  you,'  said  the  most 
impudent. 

'  Wouldn't  you  really  ?'  cried  two  youths,  stealing  up 
from  behind  and  seizing  two  of  the  girls  by  the  waist, 
and  kissing  them  despite  blows  and  laughter. 

The  combats  that  followed  forced  Kate  and  Dick  into 
the  roadway.  '  We  cannot  talk  here,'  Dick  said ;  '  isn't 
there  a  quiet  street  near  by?' 

'  There's  Market  Street;  don't  you  remember,  Dick, 
where  you  met  me  the  day  you  took  me  to  the  pot- 
teries ?' 

'  Yes,'  he  said,  '  I  do  remember  that  day.  What  a 
crash!  and  all  because  you  wouldn't  let  me  kiss  you; 
just  like  those  boys  and  girls.  You  were  more  deter- 
mined than  those  girls  were,  for  methinks,  as  we  say  in 
Shakespeare,  they  wished  to  be  kissed;  but  you  didn't 
then.' 

'  That  was  the  day,'  she  answered,  '  that  I  took  round 
Mrs.  Barnes's  dress  after  having  stayed  up  all  night  to 
finish  it.  Here's  Market  Street,'  and  they  walked  to- 
wards the  square  of  sky  enframed  in  the  end  of  the 
street,  talking  of  the  luck  that  had  brought  them  to- 
gether just  at  the  moment  when  they  thought  that 
chance  had  divided  them  forever. 

'  It  was  a  crash !'  Dick  repeated,  and  they  walked 
about  the  grass-grown  mounds  of  cinders. 


156  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  But,  Dick,  you  won't  desert  me,'  she  said.  '  Tell 
me  that  you'll  take  me  away  from  Hanley.  I  couldn't 
bear  it  when  you  were  gone — I  would  sooner  die.' 

'  Of  course  I'll  take  you  away,  my  dear,'  said  Dick, 
with  a  distinct  vision  of  the  Divorce  Court  in  his  mind; 
'  but  you  know  that  will  mean  giving  up  everything  and 
travelling  about  the  country  with  me;  I  don't  know  that 
you'll  like  it.' 

'  You  mean  that  you  don't  love  me  enough  to  take  me 
away.' 

'  I'll  take  you  away,  dear,  if  you'll  come.  I  never 
liked  a  woman  as  I  do  you.  The  train  call  is  for  ten 
o'clock.  We  must  contrive  something.  How  are  you  to 
meet  me  at  the  station?' 

It  was  Kate's  turn  then  to  hesitate.  She  had  never 
been  out  of  the  Potteries  in  her  life;  she  had  been  born, 
reared  and  married  here.  And  now  she  was  going  away 
without  hope  of  ever  being  able  to  return,  she  was  going 
into  an  unknown  region  to  roam  she  did  not  know 
whither — adrift,  and  as  helpless  as  a  tame  bird  freed 
and  delivered  to  the  enmities  of  an  unknown  land.  Half 
the  truth  dawned  upon  her  in  that  moment,  and  lifting 
her  eyes,  she  said: 

'  Dick !  You're  asking  a  great  deal  of  me.  What 
shall  I  do?  Never,  never,  never  to  see  Hanley  again!' 

'  I  didn't  know  that  you  cared  so  much  about  Han- 
ley. And  you  accused  me  just  now  of  not  loving  you 
enough  to  take  you  away.  I  think  it's  you  who  don't 
love  me.' 

'  Dick,  you  know  that  I  love  you  better  than  any- 
thing in  the  world !  But  to  give  up  everything,  never 
to  see  what  you  have  seen  all  your  life.' 

'  I  don't  think  you'll  regret  it,  dear;  we'll  be  very 
happy.  We're  going  from  here  to  Derby,  and  from 
there  to  Blackpool,  a  very  jolly  place  by  the  sea.'  And 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  157 

he  talked  to  her  about  boating  and  picnicking,  becoming 
all  the  while  more  convinced  of  her  pretty  face,  and  his 
memory  of  her  pretty  voice  was  active  in  him  when  he 
took  her  in  his  arms  and  said :  '  You  mustn't  think  any 
more  about  it,  dear;  I  couldn't  leave  this  place  without 
you.  You'll  like  Blackpool  if  you're  fond  of  boating.' 

'  I  don't  know/  she  said;  '  I've  never  seen  the  sea.' 

'  Well,  you  can  see  it  now,'  he  answered.  '  Look  out 
there;  the  valley  between  us  and  the  hills  filled  with 
mist  is  more  like  the  ocean  than  anything  I've  ever 
seen.' 

'  The  ocean,'  Kate  repeated.  '  Have  you  been  to 
America?' 

'Yes,'  he  answered,  '  I  have  lived  there  for  several 
years.  I  may  take  the  company  out  there — probably 
next  year,  if  all  goes  well.' 

'  And  will  you  take  me  with  you  ?' 

'  Yes,'  he  said,  '  but  you  must  come  away  to-morrow 
morning.  Why  do  you  hesitate?' 

'  I'm  not  hesitating/  she  answered ;  '  but  those  hills 
beyond  the  valley  have  always  seemed  to  me  very  won- 
derful; ever  since  I  was  a  little  child  I've  asked  myself 
what  lies  beyond  those  hills.' 

For  answer  Dick  kissed  her,  and  they  relapsed  into 
contemplation. 

The  tall  stems  of  the  factory  chimneys,  the  bottle- 
shaped  pottery  ovens,  the  intricate  shafts  of  the  col- 
lieries were  hidden  in  the  mist,  and  the  furnace  fires 
flashing  through  the  mist  enhanced  the  likeness  of  the 
Hanley  Valley  to  a  sea  of  stars;  like  stars  these  fur- 
naces flamed,  now  here,  now  there,  over  the  lower  slopes 
of  the  hills,  till  at  last  one  blazed  into  existence  high 
amid  the  hills,  so  high  that  it  must  have  been  on  the  very 
lowest  verge.  It  seemed  to  Kate  like  a  hearth  of  pleas- 
ure and  comfort  awaiting  her  in  some  distant  country, 


158  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

and  all  her  fancies  were  centred  in  this  distant  light, 
till  another  light  breaking  suddenly  higher  up  in  the 
hills  attracted  her,  and  she  deemed  that  it  would  be  in 
or  about  this  light  that  she  would  find  happiness.  She 
must  ascend  from  one  light  to  the  next,  but  the  light 
on  which  her  eyes  were  fixed  was  not  a  furnace  light,  but 
a  star.  Would  she  never  find  happiness  then  in  this 
world  ?  she  asked.  Was  Dick  going  to  desert  her  ?  And 
without  telling  him  that  she  had  mistaken  an  earthly  for 
a  heavenly  light  she  threw  her  arms  about  him. 

'  Of  course,  Dick,  I'll  go  with  you;  I  will  follow  you 
wherever  you  may  choose  to  go  and  do  the  work  that 
you  bid  me  to  do.  You've  spoken  well  of  my  voice. 
Oh,  yes,  Dick,  I'll  go  with  you.  Why  shouldn't  I? 
You're  everything  to  me !  I  never  knew  what  happiness 
was  till  I  saw  you;  I've  never  had  any  amusement,  I've 
never  had  any  love;  it  was  nothing  but  drudgery  from 
morning  to  night.  Better  be  dead  than  continue  such  an 
existence.  Tell  me,  Dick,  you'll  take  me  away.' 

Dick  listened  calmly  and  quietly  to  these  passionate 
beseechings,  and  taking  her  in  his  arms,  he  kissed  her 
fervidly,  though  somewhat  with  the  air  of  one  who 
deems  further  explanation  unnecessary.  But  when  he 
withdrew  his  face  Kate  continued,  at  first  plaintively, 
but  afterwards  with  more  passion: 

'  It's  very  wicked — I  know  it  is — but  I  can't  help  my- 
self. I  was  brought  up  religiously,  nobody  more  so,  but 
I  never  could  think  of  God  and  forget  this  world  like 
my  mother  and  Mrs.  Ede.  I  always  used  to  like  to  read 
tales  about  lovers,  and  I  used  to  feel  miserable  when 
they  didn't  marry  in  the  end  and  live  happily.  But 
then  those  people  were  good  and  pure,  and  were  com- 
manded to  love  each  other,  whereas  I'm  sinful,  and  shall 
be  punished  for  my  sin.  I  don't  know  how  that  will 
be;  perhaps  you'll  cease  to  love  me,  and  will  leave  me. 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  159 

When  you  cease  to  love  me  I  hope  I  shall  die.  But 
you'll  never  do  that,  Dick;  tell  me  that  you  will  not. 
You'll  remember  that  I  gave  up  a  great  deal  for  you; 
that  I  left  my  home  for  you;  that  I  left  everything.' 

Her  feebleness  attracted  him  as  much  as  her  pretty 
face,  and  he  knew  she  loved  him;  they  were  going  away 
together;  so  much  had  been  decided,  and  as  far  as  he 
could  see,  there  the  matter  ended.  Besides,  it  was  get- 
ting very  late;  the  third  act  must  be  nearly  over  now, 
and  he  had  a  lot  of  business  to  get  through.  But  it  was 
difficult  to  suggest  that  they  should  go  home,  for  Kate 
had  burst  into  tears,  unable  to  control  herself  any 
longer.  He  must  console  her. 

'  You  mustn't  cry,  dear/  he  said  softly,  '  we  shall  be 
far  away  from  here  to-morrow,  and  you'll  find  out  then 
how  well  I  love  you/ 

'But  do  you  really  love  me?  If  I  were  only  sure 
that  it  was  so!' 

'  If  I  didn't  love  you,  why  should  I  ask  you  to  go 
away  with  me?  If  I  didn't  love  you,  could  I  kiss  you 
as  I  do?' 

'  Of  course  we've  been  very  wicked/  she  continued  as 
if  she  had  not  heard  him,  '  and  you  can't  respect  me 
very  much;  but  then  you  made  love  to  me  so,  and  the 
music  made  me  forget  everything.  It  wasn't  all  my  fault, 
I  think,  and  you  were  so  different  from  all  the  other 
men  I've  seen — so  much  more  like  what  I  imagined  a 
man  should  be,  so  much  more  like  the  heroes  in  the 
novels.  You  know  in  the  books  there's  always  a  tenor 
who  comes  and  sings  under  the  window  in  the  moon- 
light, and  sends  the  lady  he  loves  roses.  You  never 
sent  me  any  roses,  but  then  there  are  no  roses  in  Han- 
ley.  But  you  were  so  kind  and  nice  and  spoke  so  dif- 
ferently, and  when  I  looked  at  your  blue  eyes  I  couldn't 
help  feeling  I  loved  you.  I  really  think  I  knew — at 


160  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

least,  I  couldn't  talk  to  you  quite  in  the  same  way  as  I 
did  to  other  men.  You  remember  when  I  was  showing 
you  over  the  rooms,  how  you  stopped  to  talk  to  me 
about  the  pious  cards  Mrs.  Ede  had  hung  on  the  wall — 
well,  since  then  I  felt  that  you  liked  me.  And  it  was 
so  different  since  you  came  to  live  in  the  house.  I 
didn't  see  much  of  you,  you  were  always  so  busy,  but 
I  used  to  lie  awake  at  night  to  hear  you  come  in.' 

'  Look  here,  dear,  I  know  you're  very  fond  of  me — 
so  am  I  of  you — but  I  must  get  back  to  the  theatre. 
You've  no  idea  of  the  business  I've  to  get  through  to- 
night, and  as  we're  going  away  together  we'll  have  to 
look  out  for  some  place  to  put  up.' 

This  necessity  for  immediate  action  at  once  startled 
and  frightened  her,  and  bursting  again  into  a  passionate 
fit  of  sobbing,  she  exclaimed: 

'  Oh,  Dick,  this  is  a  terrible  thing  you're  asking  me 
to  do !  Oh,  what  will  become  of  me  ?  But  do  you  love 
me?  Tell  me  again  that  you  love  me,  and  will  not 
leave  me.' 

Dick  drew  her  closer  to  him  for  answer.  '  We  must 
not  stay  here  any  longer,'  he  said. 

But  I  cannot  go  home,  Dick — to  that  house.' 

'  You'll  sleep  with  me,  dear,  at  the  inn.' 

'Sleep  with  you?'  she  repeated,  and  allowed  herself 
to  be  led. 

The  furnace  fires  had  increased  by  tens;  each  daz- 
zling line  was  now  crossed  and  interwoven  with  other 
lines;  and  through  the  tears  that  blinded  her  eyes  Kate 
saw  an  immense  sea  of  fire,  and  beyond  nothing  but  un- 
fathomable grey. 


XI 


NEXT  morning  the  sky  was  low  and  grey,  and  the  house- 
tops appeared  dimly  through  the  mist.  A  little  later 
the  clouds  began  to  gather,  and  it  seemed  like  rain,  but 
now  and  then  a  shaft  of  sunlight  fell  on  a  corner  of  the 
table  within  a  few  inches  of  Kate's  impatiently  moving 
fingers.  She  had  not  been  able  to  eat  any  breakfast — 
had  just  crumbled  a  piece  of  bread  and  sipped  a  cup 
of  tea,  and  begged  Dick  to  hasten.  It  seemed  that  he 
hadn't  a  thought  for  her,  of  what  her  fate  would  be  if 
they  missed  the  train.  She  couldn't  spend  another 
night  in  Hanley. 

'  Dick,  dear,  do  make  haste.  We  shall  miss  the 
train/ 

'  We've  plenty  of  time/  he  answered,  and  she  read 
in  his  face  the  desire  for  another  plate  of  crumpets,  and 
she  prayed  that  he  might  not  ask  for  another  egg. 

'  Dick,  it's  ten  minutes  to  ten.' 

'  I  don't  think  it  can  be  as  much  as  that,  dear.'  He 
turned  to  look  at  the  clock,  which  was  behind  him. 

'  Oh,  Dick,  Dick !  Make  haste,  I  beg  of  you ;  you 
don't  know  what  I'm  suffering.  Supposing  my  husband 
was  to  come  in  now  and  find  us  here?' 

'  He  can't  know  that  we're  here ;  the  station  is  the 
first  place  he'd  go  to ;  there's  no  use  hanging  about  there 
longer  than  we  can  help.' 

161 


162  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  Oh,  dear,  I'd  give  ten  years  of  my  life  if  we  were 
once  in  the  train.' 

'  There's  no  use  exciting  yourself  like  that,  dear;  I'll 
see  that  you  don't  meet  anyone.' 

'  How  will  you  manage  that?' 

'  I'll  tell  you  in  the  cab.  I  think  on  the  whole  we'd 
better  start  now.  Luckily,  we  haven't  much  luggage 
to  delay  us.  Waiter,  bring  the  bill  and  call  me  a  cab.' 

'  And  how  will  you  save  me  from  meeting  him  if  he's 
there  before  us  ?'  she  said  to  Dick  as  they  drove  away. 

'  I'll  leave  you  in  the  cab,  and  cut  down  and  see  if 
he's  there.' 

'  He  might  come  and  find  me  when  you  were  gone, 
and  that  would  be  worse  than  anything.  He  might  kill 
me,  and  I  should  have  no  one  to  save  me.' 

He  was,  in  truth,  a  little  puzzled,  for  there  was  no 
getting  away  from  the  fact  that  it  was  only  too  pos- 
sible, not  to  say  probable,  that  they  would  find  Mr.  Ede 
waiting  for  them.  He  thought  of  disguises  and  secret 
doors,  and  masks  and  wigs,  of  the  wardrobe-baskets, 
but  a  moment's  reflection  convinced  him  of  the  imprac- 
ticabilty  of  stowing  Kate  away  in  one  of  these.  He  then 
thought  of  wrapping  a  railway  rug  around  his  newly 
acquired  wife,  and  carrying  her  thus  concealed  in  his 
arms;  but  that  would  not  do  either.  Mr.  Ede  would  be 
sure  to  ask  him  what  he  had  there. 

'  Oh,  Dick,  dear,  what  shall  we  do  if  we  find  him 
waiting  on  the  platform  ?  You'll  protect  me,  won't  you  ? 
You  won't  desert  me !  I  couldn't  go  back  to  him.' 

'  Of  course  not.  Let  him  take  you  away  from  me? 
Not  me!  If  you  don't  want  to  live  with  him  any  more 
you've  a  right  to  leave  him.  I'll  knock  him  down  if  he 
gives  me  any  of  his  cheek.' 

'  You  won't  do  that,  will  you,  dear  ?  Remember  how 
small  and  weak  he  is;  you'd  kill  him.' 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  163 

'  That's  true,  so  I  would.  Well,  I'm  damned  if  I 
know  what  to  do;  you'll  have  to  come  with  me  even  if 
he  does  kick  up  a  row.  It'll  be  deuced  unpleasant,  and 
before  the  whole  company,  too.  Don't  you  think  that 
you  could  wait  a  moment  in  the  cab  while  I  have  a  look 
round — I  won't  go  far/ 

'Oh,  I'd  be  too  afraid!  Couldn't  you  ask  someone 
to  go  for  you?' 

'  I'll  see  who's  there/  said  Dick,  twisting  his  neck 
to  look  round  the  corner.  '  By  Jove !  they're  all  there 
— Beaumont,  Dolly  Goddard;  I  think  I'll  ask  Mont- 
gomery; he's  a  devilish  good  chap.  We  had  better  stop 
the  cab  here  and  I'll  call  to  him/ 

Kate  consented,  and  a  moment  after  the  musician's 
immense  nose  and  scarecrow  face  was  poked  in  the  win- 
dow. 

'  Hey,  old  pal,  what  is  it?  Waiting — but — I  beg ' 

'  Never  mind  that,'  said  Dick,  laying  his  hand  on  the 
young  fellow's  arm ;  '  I  want  you  to  do  me  a  favour. 
Run  down  on  the  platform  and  see  if  there's  a  little 
scraggy  man  about  the  height  of  Dubois  hanging  about 
anywhere.  You  can't  mistake  him;  he  has  a  dirty  dark 
beard  that  grows  on  his  face  like  a  bunch  of  grass,  and 
he's  no  chest,  little  thin  shoulders,  and  he'd  have 
on ' 

'  A  pair  of  grey  trousers,  and  a  red  woollen  com- 
forter round  his  neck,'  whispered  Kate,  feeling  bitterly 
ashamed. 

'  All  right/  said  Montgomery,  '  I'll  spot  him  if  he's 
there.  But  you  know  the  train  goes  in  ten  minutes  or 
less,  and  Hayes  says  that  he  can't  take  the  tickets; 
you've  all  the  coin/ 

'  So  I  have ;  I  forgot  to  send  it  round  to  him  last 
night.  Ask  him  to  step  up  here,  there's  a  good  fellow/ 

'  Now,   I   bet  you  Hayes   won't  be    able  to  get  the 


164  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

tickets  right.     He's  perfectly  useless,  always  boozed — 
nipping,  you  know.' 

Kate  did  not  answer,  and  an  uneasy  silence  ensued, 
which  was  broken  at  length  by  the  appearance  of  a  hic- 
cuping,  long-whiskered  man. 

'How  are  you,  o-o-old  man?     Eh!  who  is ?     I 

don't  think  I  have  the  pleasure  of  this  lady's  acquaint- 
ance.' 

'  Mrs.  Ede — Mr.  Hayes,  our  acting  manager.  Now, 
look  here,  Hayes,  you  go  and  get  the  tickets.  I  can't 
leave  this  lady.  Thirty-five  will  do.' 

'  How  thirty-five  ?     We  travel  forty-one.' 

'  You  know  well  enough  that  thirty-five  is  what  we 
always  get.  Damn  it,  man,  make  haste !' 

'  Don't  damn  me.  New  member  of  the  corn-company, 
eh?' 

'  I'll  tell  you  all  about  that  after,  old  man,'  said  Dick, 
leaning  forward  and  pretending  to  whisper  confiden- 
tially. 

This  satisfied  the  tippler,  who,  after  pulling  his  silky 
whiskers  and  serving  Kate  to  another  drunken  stare, 
hurried  off,  black  bag  in  hand. 

'  Confounded  nuisance  to  have  to  deal  with  a  fellow 
like  that;  he  thinks  he's  a  dab  at  business,  and  goes 
about  with  the  black  bag  for  show.' 

Two  minutes  passed,  maybe  three;  it  seemed  to  her 
an  eternity,  and  then  she  heard  Montgomery's  voice 
crying: 

'  It's  all  right,  I'm  sure.' 

'  Then  get  out,  dear,'  said  Dick,  '  we  haven't  a  mo- 
ment to  lose.' 

She  jumped  out,  but  hadn't  walked  a  dozen  yards 
before  she  stopped  panic-stricken. 

'  Mrs.  Ede — my  mother-in-law — perhaps  she's  there ! 
Oh,  Dick,  what  shall  I  do?' 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  165 

'She  isn't  there/  Montgomery  answered;  'I  know 
her  by  sight/  and  that  Montgomery  should  know  her 
mother-in-law  by  sight  meant  to  Kate  as  much  as  a  foot- 
print does  to  a  lost  one  in  a  desert.  For  the  sight  of 
the  company  on  the  asphalt,  and  all  the  luggage,  port- 
manteaux, and  huge  white  baskets  labelled  '  Morton  and 
Cox's  Operatic  Company,'  and  the  train  waiting  to 
carry  them  away  to  an  unknown  destination,  made  her 
feel  more  intensely  than  ever  that  she  was  adrift  in  a 
current  that  would  carry  her  she  knew  not  whither. 
All  these  strange  people  collected  together  were  hence- 
forth her  world.  She  was  not  unnaturally  frightened, 
but  the  baggage  man  especially  filled  her  with  alarm, 
so  all-powerful  did  he  seem,  rushing  up  and  down  the 
platform,  shouting  at  the  porters,  and  throwing  out  bits 
of  information  to  the  ladies  of  the  company  as  he  passed 
them  by. 

'  We  shall  be  off  in  a  minute,  dear/  whispered  Dick 
softly  in  her  ear,  '  and  then ' 

'  Whose  carriage  are  you  going  in,  Dick  ?'  said  a  little 
stout  man  who  walked  with  a  strut  and  wore  a  hat  like 
a  bishop's. 

'  I  really  don't  know;  I  don't  mind;  anywhere  except 
with  the  pipe-smokers.  I  can't  stand  that  lot.' 

'  Perhaps  he's  going  to  take  a  first-class  compart- 
ment with  hot-water  pans,'  remarked  Mortimer,  and  the 
little  group  of  admirers  all  laughed  consumedly. 

Dick,  overhearing  the  remark,  said  to  Kate :  '  One 
mustn't  take  notice  of  what  he  says;  I  very  nearly 
kicked  him  into  the  orchestra  at  Halifax  about  six 
months  ago.  But  what  compartment  shall  we  take? 
Let's  go  with  Leslie  and  Dubois  and  Montgomery; 
they're  the  quietest.  Let  me  introduce  you  to  Miss  Les- 
lie. Miss  Leslie — Mrs.  Ede,  a  lady  I'm  escorting  to 
Blackpool;  you  two  have  a  chat  together.  I'll  be  back 


166  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

in  a  minute.  I  must  go  after  Hayes;  if  I  don't  he  may 
forget  all  about  the  tickets.' 

'  I'm  afraid  you'll  find  us  a  very  noisy  lot,  Mrs.  Ede,' 
said  Miss  Leslie,  and  in  a  way  that  made  Kate  feel  inti- 
mate with  her  at  once. 

Miss  Leslie  had  a  bright  smiling  face,  with  clear  blue 
eyes,  and  a  mop  of  dyed  hair  peeped  from  under  a  pret- 
tily ribboned  bonnet,  and  Kate  noticed  how  beautifully 
cut  were  her  clothes.  Miss  Beaumont  sported  large  dia- 
monds in  her  ears,  and  she  wore  a  somewhat  frayed  yel- 
low French  cloak,  which,  she  explained  to  the  girls  near 
her,  particularly  to  her  pal,  Dolly  Goddard,  was  quite 
good  enough  for  travelling.  No  one  in  the  company 
could  understand  the  friendship  between  these  two;  the 
knowing  ones  declared  that  Dolly  was  Beaumont's 
daughter;  others,  who  professed  to  be  more  knowing, 
entertained  other  views.  Dolly  was  a  tiny  girl  with 
crumpled  features,  who  wore  dresses  that  were  remade 
from  the  big  woman's  cast-off  garments.  She  sang  in 
the  chorus,  was  in  receipt  of  a  salary  of  five-and-twenty 
shillings  a  week,  and  was  a  favourite  with  everyone. 
Around  her  stood  a  group  of  girls ;  they  formed  a  black 
mass  of  cotton,  alpaca,  and  dirty  cloth.  Near  them  half 
a  dozen  chorus-men  were  talking  of  the  possibility  of 
getting  another  drink  before  the  train  came  up.  Their 
frayed  boots  and  threadbare  frock-coats  would  have 
caused  them  to  be  mistaken  for  street  idlers,  but  one  or 
two  of  their  number  exhibited  patent  leathers  and  a 
smart  made-up  cravat  of  the  latest  fashion.  Dubois's 
hat  gave  him  the  appearance  of  a  bishop,  his  tight  trou- 
sers confounded  him  with  a  groom;  and  Joe  Mortimer 
made  up  very  well  for  the  actor  whose  friends  once  be- 
lieved he  was  a  genius. 

The  news  had  gone  about  that  Dick  was  running 
away  with  a  married  woman,  and  that  the  husband  was 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  167 

expected  to  appear  every  minute  to  stop  her;  it  had 
reached  even  the  ears  of  the  chorus-men  in  the  refresh- 
ment room,  and  they  gulped  down  their  beer  and  hur- 
ried back  to  see  the  sport.  Mortimer  declared  that  they 
were  going  to  see  Dick  for  the  first  time  in  legitimate 
drama,  and  that  he  wouldn't  miss  it  for  the  world.  The 
joke  was  repeated  through  the  groups,  and  before  the 
laughter  ceased  the  green-painted  engine  puffed  into 
sight,  and  at  the  same  moment  Dick  was  seen  making 
his  way  towards  them  from  the  refreshment  room,  drag- 
ging drunken  Mr.  Hayes  along  with  them. 

Then  Kate  felt  glad,  and  almost  triumphantly  she 
dashed  the  tears  from  her  eyes.  No  one  could  stop  her 
now.  She  was  going  away  with  Dick,  to  be  loved  and 
live  happy  forever.  Beaumont  was  forgotten,  and  the 
fierce  longing  for  change  she  had  been  so  long  nourish- 
ing completely  mastered  her,  and,  with  a  childlike  im- 
petuosity, she  rushed  up  to  her  lover,  and  leaning  on  his 
arm,  strove  to  speak. 

'What  is  it,  dear?'  he  said,  bending  towards  her. 
'What  are  you  crying  about?' 

'  Oh,  nothing,  Dick.  I'm  so  happy.  Oh,  if  only  we 
were  outside  this  station!  Where  shall  I  get  in?' 

Even  if  her  husband  did  come,  and  she  were  taken 
back,  she  thought  that  she  would  like  to  have  been  at 
least  inside  a  railway  carriage. 

'  Get  in  here.  Where's  Montgomery  ?  Let's  have 
him.' 

'  And,  oh,  do  ask  Miss  Leslie.  She's  been  so  kind 
to  me.' 

'  Yes,  she  always  travels  with  us,'  said  Dick,  stand- 
ing at  the  carriage  door.  '  Come,  get  in,  Montgomery; 
make  haste,  Dubois.' 

'But  where's  Bret?'  shouted  someone. 

'  I  haven't  seen  him,'  replied  several  voices. 
12 


168  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'Is  there  any  lady  missing?'  asked  Montgomery. 

'  No/  replied  Mortimer  in  the  deepest  nasal  intona- 
tion he  could  assume,  '  but  I  noticed  a  relation  of  the 
chief  banker  in  the  town  in  the  theatre  last  night.  Per- 
haps our  friend  has  had  his  cheque  stopped.' 

Roars  of  laughter  greeted  this  sally,  the  relevance 
of  which  no  one  could  even  faintly  guess ;  and  the  guard 
smiled  as  he  said  to  the  porter: 

'  That's  Mr.  Mortimer.  Amusing,  is  them  theatre 
gentlemen.'  Then,  turning  to  Dick,  '  I  must  start  the 
train.  Your  friend  will  be  late  if  he  doesn't  come  up 
jolly  quick/ 

'  Isn't  it  extraordinary  that  Bret  can  never  be  up  to 
time?  Every  night  there's  a  stage  wait  for  him  to  come 
on  for  the  serenade/  said  Dick,  withdrawing  his  head 
from  the  window. 

'  Here  'e  is,  sir/  said  the  guard. 

'  Come  on,  Bret;  you'll  be  late,'  shouted  Dick. 

A  tall,  thin  man  in  a  velvet  coat,  urged  on  by  two 
porters,  was  seen  making  his  way  down  the  platform 
with  a  speed  that  was  evidently  painful. 

'  In  here/  said  Dick,  opening  the  door. 

Out  of  the  dim  station  they  passed  into  the  bright 
air  alongside  of  long  lines  of  wagons,  laden  with 
chimney-pots  and  tiles,  the  produce  of  Hanley.  The 
collieries  steamed  above  their  cinder-hills,  the  factory 
chimneys  vomited,  and  as  Kate  looked  out  on  this  world 
of  work  that  she  was  leaving  for  ever,  she  listened  to 
the  uncertain  trouble  that  mounted  up  through  her 
mind,  and  to  the  voices  of  the  actors  talking  of  comic 
songs  and  dances. 

She  put  out  her  hand  instinctively  to  find  Dick's;  he 
was  sitting  beside  her,  and  she  felt  happy  again. 

At  these  intimacies  none  but  Frank  Bret  was  sur- 
prised, and  the  laugh  that  made  Kate  blush  was  occa- 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  169 

sioned  by  the  tenor's  stupid  questioning  look:  it  was 
the  first  time  he  had  seen  her;  he  had  not  yet  heard  the 
story  of  the  elopement,  and  his  glance  went  from  one 
to  the  other,  vainly  demanding  an  explanation,  and  to 
increase  the  hilarity  Dick  said: 

'  But,  by  the  way,  Bret,  what  made  you  so  late  this 
morning?  Were  you  down  at  the  bank  cashing  a 
cheque?' 

'  What  are  you  thinking  about?  There  are  no  banks 
open  on  Sunday  morning/  said  Bret,  who  of  course  had 
not  the  least  idea  what  was  meant. 

The  reply  provoked  peals  of  laughter  from  all  save 
Miss  Leslie,  and  all  possible  changes  were  rung  on  the 
joke,  until  it  became  as  nauseous  to  the  rest  of  the  com- 
pany as  to  the  bewildered  tenor,  who  bore  the  chaff  with 
the  dignified  stupidity  of  good  looks. 

The  mummers  travelled  third  class.  Kate  sat  next 
the  window,  with  her  back  to  the  engine;  Dick  was  be- 
side her,  and  Miss  Leslie  facing  her;  then  came  Dubois 
and  Bret,  with  Montgomery  at  the  far  end. 

The  conversation  had  fallen,  and  Dick,  passing  his 
arm  around  Kate's  waist,  whispered  to  her  and  to  Les- 
lie: 

'  I  want  you  two  to  be  pals.  Lucy  is  one  of  my  old- 
est friends.  I  knew  her  when  she  was  so  high,  and  it 
was  I  who  gave  her  her  first  part,  wasn't  it,  Lucy?' 

'  Yes.  Don't  you  remember,  Dick,  the  first  night  I 
played  Florette  in  The  Brigands?  Wasn't  I  in  a 
fright?  I  never  should  have  ventured  on  the  stage  if 
you  hadn't  pushed  me  on  from  the  wings.' 

Kate  thought  she  had  never  seen  anyone  look  so 
nice  or  heard  anyone  speak  so  sweetly.  In  fact,  she 
liked  her  better  off  the  stage  than  on.  Leslie  had  a  way 
of  raising  her  voice  as  she  spoke  till  it  ended  in  a  laugh 
and  a  display  of  white  teeth.  The  others  of  the  com- 


170  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

pany  she  did  not  yet  recognize.  They  were  still  to  her 
figures  moving  through  an  agitated  dream.  Leslie  was 
the  first  to  awaken  to  life. 

The  tendency  of  Dick's  conversation  was  to  wander, 
but  after  having  indulged  for  some  time  in  the  pleasures 
of  retrospection  he  returned  to  the  subject  in  point: 

'  Well,  it's  a  bit  difficult  to  explain/  Dick  said,  '  but, 
you  see,  this  lady,  Mrs.  Ede,  wasn't  very  happy  at 
home,  and  having  a  nice  voice — you  must  hear  her  sing 
some  Angot — and  such  an  ear !  She  only  heard  the 
waltz  once,  and  she  can  give  it  note  for  note.  Well,  to 
make  a  long  story  short,  she  thought  she'd  cut  it,  and 
try  what  she  could  do  with  us/ 

'  You're  all  very  kind  to  me,  but  I'm  afraid  I've  been 
very  wicked.' 

'  Oh,  my !'  said  Miss  Leslie,  laughing,  '  you  mustn't 
talk  like  that,  you'll  put  us  all  to  the  blush.' 

'  I  wonder  how  such  theories  would  suit  Beaumont's 
book,'  said  Dick. 

'  You  see,'  Dick  continued,  '  she's  left  Hanley  with- 
out any  clothes  except  those  she's  wearing,  and  we'll 
have  to  buy  everything  in  Derby,'  and  he  begged  Bret 
to  move  down  a  bit  and  allow  him  to  take  the  seat  next 
to  Leslie. 

The  tenor,  conductor,  and  second  low  comedian  had 
spread  a  rug  over  their  knees,  and  were  playing  nap. 
They  shouted,  laughed,  and  sang  portions  of  their  even- 
ing music  when  they  made  or  anticipated  making  points, 
and  Kate  was  therefore  left  to  herself,  and  she  looked 
out  of  the  window. 

They  were  passing  through  the  most  beautiful  parts 
of  Staffordshire,  and  for  the  first  time  she  saw  the 
places  that  seemed  to  her  just  like  the  spot  where  the 
lady  with  the  oval  face  used  to  read  Shelley  to  the 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  171 

% 

handsome  baronet  when  her  husband  was  away  doctor- 
ing the  country-folk. 

The  day  was  full  of  mist  and  sun.  Along  the  edges 
of  the  woods  the  white  vapours  loitered,  half  conceal- 
ing the  forms  of  the  grazing  kine;  and  the  light  shadows 
floated  on  the  grass,  long  and  prolonged,  even  as  the 
memories  that  were  now  filling  the  mind  of  this  senti- 
mental workwoman.  It  seemed  to  her  that  she  was  now 
on  the  threshold  of  a  new  life — the  life  of  which  she 
had  so  long  dreamed.  Her  lover  was  near  her,  but  in 
a  railway  carriage  filled  with  smoke  and  with  various 
men  and  women;  and  it  seemed  to  her  that  they  should 
be  walking  in  sunny  meadows  by  hedgerows.  The 
birds  were  singing  in  the  shaws;  but  in  her  imagina- 
tion the  clinking  of  needles  and  the  rustling  of  silk  min- 
gled with  the  songs  of  the  birds,  and  forgetting  the 
landscape,  with  a  sigh  she  fell  to  thinking  of  what  they 
would  be  saying  of  her  at  home. 

She  knew  Mrs.  Ede  would  have  the  whole  town 
searched,  and  when  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  enter- 
tain a  doubt,  she  would  say  that  Kate's  name  must  never 
again  be  mentioned  in  her  presence.  A  letter !  There 
was  much  to  say:  but  none  would  understand.  The  old 
woman  who  had  once  loved  her  so  dearly  would  for  ever 
detest  her.  And  Ralph?  Fate  did  not  care  quite  so 
much  what  he  thought  of  her;  she  fancied  him  swearing 
and  cursing,  and  sending  the  police  after  her;  and  then 
he  appeared  to  her  as  a  sullen,  morose  figure  moving 
about  the  shop,  growling  occasionally  at  his  mother,  and 
muttering  from  time  to  time  that  he  was  devilish  glad 
that  his  wife  had  gone  away.  She  would  have  wished 
him  to  regret  her;  and  when  she  remembered  the  little 
girls,  she  felt  the  tears  rise  to  her  eyes.  What  explana- 
tion would  be  given  to  them?  Would  they  learn  to  hate 
her?  She  thought  not;  but  still  they  would  have  to  give 


172  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

up  coming  to  the  shop — there  was  no  one  now  to  teach 
them  sewing.  Her  absence  would  change  everything. 
Mrs.  Ede  would  never  be  able  to  get  on  with  Hender, 
and  even  if  she  did,  neither  of  them  knew  enough  of 
dressmaking  to  keep  the  business  going,  and  she  asked 
herself  sorrowfully :  '  What  will  become  of  them  ?'  They 
would  not  be  able  to  live  upon  what  they  sold  in  the 
shop — that  was  a  mere  nothing.  Poor  Ralph's  dreams 
of  plate-glass  and  lamps !  Where  were  they  now  ? 
Mrs.  Ede's  thirty  pounds  a  year  would  barely  pay  the 
rent.  A  vision  of  destruction  and  brokers  passed  before 
her  mind,  and  she  realized  for  the  first  time  the  im- 
mense importance  of  the  step  she  had  taken.  Not  only 
was  her  own  future  hidden,  but  the  future  of  those  she 
had  left  behind.  The  tedium  of  her  life  in  Hanley  was 
forgotten,  and  she  remembered  only  the  quiet,  certain 
life  she  might  have  led,  in  and  out  from  the  shop  to 
the  front  kitchen,  and  up  to  her  workroom — the  life 
that  she  had  been  born  into.  Now  she  had  nothing  but 
this  man's  love.  If  she  were  to  lose  it! 

Leslie  smiled  at  the  lovers,  and  moving  towards  the 
card-players,  she  placed  her  arm  round  Bret's  shoulders 
and  examined  his  hand.  Then  the  three  men  raised 
their  heads.  Dubois,  with  the  cynicism  of  the  ugly  lit- 
tle man  who  has  ever  had  to  play  the  part  of  the  dis- 
dained lover  both  in  real  or  fictitious  life,  giggled, 
leered,  and  pointed  over  his  shoulder.  Montgomery 
smiled  too,  but  a  close  observer  would  detect  in  him 
the  yearnings  of  a  young  man  from  whose  plain  face 
the  falling  fruit  is  ever  invisibly  lifted.  Bret  looked 
round  also,  but  his  look  was  the  indifferent  stare  of  one 
to  whom  love  has  come  often,  and  he  glanced  as  idly 
at  the  picture  as  a  worn-out  gourmet  would  over  the  bill 
of  fare  of  a  table  d'hote  dinner. 

A   moment  after  all  eyes  were   again   fixed   on   the 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  173 

game,  and  Dick  began  to  speak  to  Kate  of  the  clothes 
she  would  have  to  buy  in  Derby. 

'  I  can  give  you  twenty  pounds  to  fit  yourself  out. 
Do  you  think  you  could  manage  with  that?' 

'  I'm  afraid  I'm  putting  you  to  a  lot  of  expense, 
dear.' 

'  Not  more  than  you're  worth.  You  don't  know  what 
a  pleasant  time  we  shall  have  travellin'  about;  it's  so 
tiresome  bein'  always  alone.  There's  no  society  in  these 
country  towns,  but  I  shan't  v.-ant  society  now/ 

'  And  do  you  think  that  you  won't  get  tired  of  me  ? 
Will  you  never  care  again  for  any  of  these  fine  ladies?' 
and  her  brilliant  eyes  drew  down  Dick's  lips,  and  when 
they  entered  a  tunnel  the  temptation  to  repeat  the  kiss 
was  great,  but  owing  to  Dubois's  attempt  to  light 
matches  it  ended  in  failure.  Dick  bumped  his  head 
against  the  woodwork  of  the  carriage;  Kate  felt  she 
hated  the  little  comedian,  and  before  she  recovered  her 
temper  the  train  began  to  slacken  speed,  and  there  were 
frequent  calls  for  Dick  from  the  windows  of  the  differ- 
ent compartments. 

'  Is  the  railway  company  going  to  stand  us  treat  this 
journey?'  shouted  Mortimer. 

'  Yes,'  replied  Dick,  putting  his  head  out,  '  seven  the 
last  time  and  seven  this;  we  should  have  more  than  a 
couple  of  quid/ 

When  the  train  stopped  and  a  voice  was  heard  cry- 
ing, 'All  tickets  here!'  he  said  to  Dubois,  Bret,  and 
Montgomery,  '  Now  then,  you  fellows,  cut  off ;  get  Morti- 
mer and  a  few  of  the  chorus-men  to  join  you;  we're 
seven  short/ 

As  they  ran  away  he  continued  to  Leslie,  '  I  hope 
Hayes  won't  bungle  it;  he's  got  the  tickets  to-day/ 

'  You  shouldn't  have  let  him  take  them ;   you  know 


174  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

he's  always  more  or  less  drunk,  and  may  answer  forty- 
two.' 

'I  can't  help  it  if  he  does;  I'd  something  else  to 
look  after  at  Hanley.' 

'  Tickets !'  said  the  guard. 

'  Our  acting  manager  has  them ;  he's  in  the  end  car- 
riage.' 

'  You  know  I  don't  want  anything  said  about  it; 
Hayes  and  I  are  old  pals;  but  it's  a  damned  nuisance 
to  have  an  acting  manager  who's  always  boozed.  I 
have  to  look  after  everything  even  to  making  up  the 
returns.  But  I  must  have  a  look  and  see  how  he's 
gettin'  on  with  the  guard/  said  Dick,  jumping  up  and 
putting  his  head  out  of  the  window. 

After  a  moment  or  two  he  withdrew  it  and  said 
hastily,  'By  Jove !  there's  a  row  on.  I  must  go  and  see 
what's  up.  I  bet  that  fool  has  gone  and  done  some- 
thing.' 

In  a  minute  he  had  opened  the  carriage-door  and  was 
hurrying  down  the  platform. 

'  Oh,  what's  the  matter  ? — do  tell  me,'  said  Kate  to 
Miss  Leslie.  '  I  hope  he  won't  get  into  any  trouble.' 

'  It's  nothing  at  all.  We  never,  you  know,  take  the 
full  number  of  tickets,  for  it  is  impossible  for  the  guard 
to  count  us  all;  and  besides,  there  are  some  members 
who  always  run  down  the  platform;  and  in  that  way 
we  save  a  good  deal  of  coin,  which  is  spent  in  drinks 
all  round.'  But  guessing  what  was  passing  in  Kate's 
mind  Leslie  said :  '  it  isn't  cheating.  The  company  pro- 
vides us  with  a  carriage,  and  it  is  all  the  same  to  them 
if  we  travel  five-and-thirty  or  forty-two.' 


XII 


THE  rest  of  the  journey  was  accomplished  monoto- 
nously, the  conversation  drifting  into  a  discussion,  in 
the  course  of  which  mention  was  made  of  actors,  singers, 
theatre,  prices  of  admission,  '  make-ups/  stage  man- 
agement, and  music.  It  was  in  Birmingham  that  Ash- 
ton,  Leslie's  understudy,  sang  the  tenor's  music  instead 
of  her  own  in  the  first  act  of  the  Cloches:  and  poor  so- 
and-so,  who  was  playing  the  Grenicheux — how  he  did 
look  when  he  heard  his  B  flat  go  off! 

'  Flat,'  murmured  Montgomery  sorrowfully,  '  isn't 
the  word.  I  assure  you  it  loosened  every  tooth  in  my 
head.  I  broke  my  stick  trying  to  stop  her,  but  it  was 
no  bloody  good.' 

Then  explanations  of  how  the  different  pieces  had 
been  produced  in  Paris  were  volunteered,  and  the  tal- 
ents of  the  different  composers  were  discussed;  and  all 
held  their  sides  and  roared  when  Dubois,  who,  Kate 
began  to  perceive,  was  the  company's  laughing-stock, 
declared  that  he  thought  Offenbach  too  polkaic. 

At  last  the  train  rolled  into  Derby,  and  Dick  asked 
a  red  pimply-faced  man  in  a  round  hat  if  he  had  se- 
cured good  places  for  his  posters. 

'  Spiffing,'  the  man  answered,  and  he  saluted  Leslie. 
'  But  I  couldn't  get  you  the  rooms.  They're  let;  and, 
between  ourselves,  you'll  'ave  a  difficulty  in  finding 

175 


176  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

what  you  want.  This  is  cattle-show  week.  You'd  better 
come  on  at  once  with  me.  I  know  an  hotel  that  isn't 
bad,  and  you  can  have  first  choice — Beaumont's  old 
rooms;  but  you  must  come  at  once.' 

Kate  was  glad  to  see  that  Mr.  Bill  Williams,  the 
agent  in  advance,  did  not  remember  her.  She,  how- 
ever, recognized  him  at  once  as  the  man  who  had  sent 
Dick  to  her  house. 

'  Cattle-show  week !  All  the  rooms  in  the  town  let !' 
cried  Leslie,  who  had  overhead  part  of  Mr.  Williams's 
whisperings.  '  Oh  dear,  I  do  hope  that  my  rooms  aren't 
let.  I  hate  going  to  an  hotel.  Let  me  out;  I  must 
see  about  them  at  once.  Here,  Frank,  take  hold  of  this 


'  There's  no  use  being  in  such  a  hurry;  if  the  rooms 
are  let  they  are  let.  What's  the  name  of  the  hotel  you 
were  speaking  of,  Williams?' 

'  I  forget  the  name,  but  if  you  don't  find  lodgings, 
I'll  leave  you  the  address  at  the  theatre,'  said  the  agent 
in  advance,  winking  at  Dick. 

'  You're  too  damned  clever,  Williams;  you'll  be  mak- 
ing somebody's  fortune  one  of  these  days.' 

Kate  had  some  difficulty  in  keeping  close  to  Dick,  for 
he  was  surrounded  the  moment  he  stepped  out  on  the 
platform.  The  baggage-man  had  a  quantity  of  ques- 
tions to  ask  him,  and  Hayes  was  desirous  of  re-ex- 
plaining how  the  ticket-collector  had  happened  to  mis- 
understand him.  Pulling  his  long  whiskers,  the  acting 
manager  walked  about  murmuring,  'Stupid  fool!  stupid 
darned  fool !'  And  there  were  some  twenty  young 
women  who  pleaded  in  turn,  their  little  hands  laid  on 
the  arm  of  the  popular  fat  man. 

'Yes,  dear;  that's  it,'  he  answered.  'I'll  see  to  it 
to-morrow.  I'll  try  not  to  put  you  in  Miss  Crawford's 
dressing-room,  since  you  don't  agree.' 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  177 

'  And,  Mr.  Lennox,  you  will  see  that  I'm  not  shoved 
into  the  back  row  by  Miss  Dacre,  won't  you?' 

'  Yes,  dear,  yes,  dear;  I'll  see  to  that  too;  but  I  must 
be  off  now;  and  you'd  better  see  after  lodgings;  I  hear 
that  they  are  very  scarce.  If  you  aren't  able  to  get 
any,  come  up  to  the  Hen  and  Chickens;  I  hear  they 
have  rooms  to  let  there.  Poor  little  girls!'  he  mur- 
mured to  Williams  as  they  got  into  a  cab.  '  They  only 
have  twenty-five  bob  a  week;  one  can't  see  them  robbed 
by  landladies  who  can  let  their  rooms  three  times  over.' 

'  Just  as  you  like,'  said  Williams,  '  but  you'll  have 
the  hotel  full  of  them.' 

As  they  drove  through  the  town  Dick  called  atten- 
tion to  the  animated  appearance  of  the  crowds,  and 
Williams  explained  the  advantages  of  the  corners  he 
had  chosen,  and  at  last  a  cab  stopped  at  the  inn,  or 
rather  before  the  archway  of  a  stone  passage  some  four 
or  five  yards  wide. 

'  There's  no  inn  here !' 

'  Oh,  yes,  there  is,  and  a  very  nice  inn  too ;  the  en- 
trance is  a  little  way  up  the  passage.' 

It  was  an  old-fashioned  place — probably  it  had  been 
a  fashionable  resort  for  sporting  squires  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century.  The  hall  was  wainscotted  in  yel- 
low painted  wood;  on  the  right-hand  side  there  was  a 
large  brown  press,  with  glass  doors,  surmounted  by  a 
pair  of  buffalo  horns ;  on  the  opposite  wall  hung  a 
barometer;  and  the  wide,  slowly  sloping  staircase,  with 
its  low  thick  banisters,  ascended  in  front  of  the  street 
door.  The  apartments  were  not,  however,  furnished 
with  archaeological  correctness. 

A  wall-paper  of  an  antique  design  contrasted  with  a 
modern  tablecloth,  and  the  sombre  red  curtains  were 
ill  suited  to  the  plate-glass  which  had  replaced  the  nar- 
row windows  of  old  time.  Dick  did  not  like  the  dust 


178  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

nor  the  tarnish,  but  no  other  bed  and  sitting-room  be- 
ing available,  a  bargain  was  soon  struck,  and  the  pro- 
prietor, after  hoping  that  his  guests  would  be  com- 
fortable, informed  them  that  the  rule  of  his  house  was 
that  the  street  door  was  barred  and  locked  at  eleven 
o'clock,  and  would  be  reopened  for  no  one. 

He  was  a  quiet  man  who  kept  an  orderly  house,  and 
if  people  could  not  manage  to  be  in  before  midnight  he 
did  not  care  for  their  custom.  After  grumbling  a  bit, 
Dick  remembered  that  the  pubs  closed  at  eleven,  and  as 
he  did  not  know  anyone  in  the  town  there  would  be  no 
temptation  to  stay  out. 

Williams,  who  had  been  attentively  examining  Kate, 
said  that  he  was  going  down  to  the  theatre,  and  asked 
if  he  should  have  the  luggage  sent  up. 

This  was  an  inconvenient  question,  and  as  an  ex- 
planation was  impossible  before  the  hotel-keeper,  Dick 
was  obliged  to  wish  Kate  good-bye  for  the  present,  and 
accompany  Williams  down  to  the  theatre. 

She  took  off  her  bonnet  mechanically,  threw  it  on 
the  table,  and,  sitting  down  in  an  armchair  by  the  win- 
dow, let  her  thoughts  drift  to  those  at  home. 

Whatever  doubt  there  might  have  been  at  first,  they 
now  knew  that  she  had  left  them — and  for  ever. 

The  last  three  words  cost  her  a  sigh,  but  she  was 
forced  to  admit  them.  There  could  be  no  uncertainty 
now  in  Ralph's  and  his  mother's  mind  that  she  had  gone 
off  with  Mr.  Lennox.  Yes,  she  had  eloped;  there  could 
be  no  question  about  the  fact.  She  had  done  what  she 
had  so  often  read  of  in  novels,  but  somehow  it  did  not 
seem  at  all  the  same  thing. 

This  was  a  startling  discovery  to  make,  but  of  the 
secret  of  her  disappointment  she  was  nearly  uncon- 
scious; and  rousing  herself  from  the  torpor  into  which 
she  had  fallen,  she  hoped  Dick  would  not  stop  long 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  179 

away.  It  was  so  tiresome  waiting.  But  soon  Miss 
Leslie  came  running  upstairs. 

'  Dinner  has  been  ordered  for  five  o'clock,  and  we've 
made  up  a  party  of  four — you,  Dick,  myself,  and 
Frank.' 

'And  what  time  is  it  now?' 

'  About  four.  Don't  you  think  you'll  be  able  to  hold 
out  till  then?' 

'  Oh,  dear  me,  yes ;  I'm  not  very  hungry.' 

'  And  I'll  lend  you  anything  you  want  for  to-night.' 

'  Thanks,  it's  very  kind  of  you.'  Kate  fell  to  won- 
dering if  her  kindness  had  anything  to  do  with  Dick, 
and  with  the  view  to  discovering  their  secret,  if  they 
had  one,  she  watched  them  during  dinner,  and  was 
glad  to  see  that  Mr.  Frank  Bret  occupied  the  prima 
donna's  entire  attention. 

Soon  after  dinner  the  party  dispersed. 

'  You'll  not  be  able  to  buy  anything  to-night,'  Dick 
said,  and  Kate  answered: 

'  Leslie  said  she'd  lend  me  a  nightgown.' 

'  And  to-morrow  you'll  buy  yourself  a  complete  rig- 
out/  and  he  gave  her  five-and-twenty  pounds  and  told 
her  to  pal  with  Leslie,  that  she  was  the  best  of  the  lot. 
It  seemed  to  her  quite  a  little  fortune,  and  as  Dick  had 
to  go  to  London  next  morning,  she  sent  up  word  to 
Leslie  to  ask  if  she  would  come  shopping  with  her. 
The  idea  of  losing  her  lover  so  soon  frightened  her,  and 
had  it  not  been  for  the  distraction  that  the  buying  of 
clothes  afforded  her  the  week  she  spent  in  Derby  would 
have  been  intolerable.  Leslie,  it  is  true,  often  came 
to  sit  with  Kate,  and  on  more  than  one  occasion  went 
out  to  walk  with  her.  But  there  were  long  hours  which 
she  was  forced  to  pass  alone  in  the  gloom  of  the  hotel 
sitting-room,  and  as  she  sat  making  herself  a  travelling 
dress,  oppressed  and  trembling  with  thoughts,  she  was 


180  A    MUMMER'S   WIFE 

often  forced  to  lay  down  her  work.  She  had  to  admit 
that  nothing  had  turned  out  as  she  had  expected;  even 
her  own  power  of  loving  appeared  feeble  in  comparison 
to  the  wealth  of  affection  she  had  imagined  herself 
lavishing  upon  Dick.  Something  seemed  to  separate 
them;  even  when  she  lay  back  and  he  held  her  in  his 
arms,  she  was  not  as  near  to  him  as  she  had  dreamed 
of  being;  and  try  as  she  would,  she  found  it  impossible 
to  wipe  out  of  her  mind  the  house  in  Hanley.  It  rose 
before  her,  a  dark  background  with  touches  of  clear 
colour:  the  little  girls  working  by  the  luminous  window 
with  the  muslin  curtains  and  the  hanging  pot  of  green- 
stuff; the  stiff-backed  woman  moving  about  with  plates 
and  dishes  in  her  hands;  the  invalid  wheezing  on  the 
little  red  calico  sofa.  The  past  was  still  reality,  and 
the  present  a  fable.  It  didn't  seem  true:  lying  with 
a  man  who  was  still  strange  to  her;  rising  when  she 
pleased;  getting  even  her  meals  when  she  pleased.  She 
could  not  realize  the  fact  that  she  had  left  for  ever 
her  quiet  home  in  the  Potteries,  and  was  travelling 
about  the  country  with  a  company  of  strolling  actors. 
The  spider  that  had  spun  itself  from  the  ceiling  did 
not  seem  suspended  in  life  by  a  less  visible  thread  than 
herself.  Supposing  Dick  were  never  to  return!  The 
thought  was  appalling,  and  on  more  than  one  occasion 
she  fell  down  on  her  knees  to  pray  to  be  preserved  from 
such  a  terrible  misfortune. 

But  her  hours  of  solitude  were  not  the  worst  she  had 
to  bear.  Impelled  by  curiosity  to  hear  all  the  details 
of  the  elopement,  and  urged  by  an  ever-present  desire 
to  say  unpleasant  things,  Miss  Beaumont  paid  Kate 
many  visits,  and  sitting  with  her  thick  legs  crossed, 
she  insinuated  all  she  dared.  She  did  not  venture  upon 
a  direct  statement,  but  by  the  aid  of  a  smile  and  an 
indirect  allusion  it  was  easy  to  suggest  that  love  in 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  181 

an  actor's  heart  is  brief.  As  long  as  Miss  Beaumont 
was  present  Kate  repressed  her  feelings,  but  when  she 
found  herself  alone  tears  flowed  down  her  cheeks,  and 
sobs  echoed  through  the  dusty  sitting-room. 

It  was  in  one  of  these  trances  of  emotion  that  Dick 
found  her  when  he  returned,  and  that  night  she  ac- 
companied him  to  the  theatre.  The  piece  played  was 
Les  Cloches  de  Corneville.  Miss  Beaumont  as  Ger- 
maine  disappointed  her,  and  she  could  not  understand 
how  it  was  that  the  Marquis  was  not  in  love  with  Ser- 
polette.  But  the  reality  that  most  grossly  contradicted 
her  idea  was  that  Dick  should  be  playing  the  part  of 
the  Bailie;  and  when  she  saw  her  hero  fall  down  in 
the  middle  of  the  stage  and  heard  everybody  laugh  at 
him,  she  felt  both  ashamed  and  insulted.  The  romantic 
character  of  her  mind  asserted  itself,  and,  against  her 
will,  forced  her  to  admire  the  purple-cloaked  Marquis. 
Then  her  thoughts  turned  to  considering  if  she  would 
be  able  to  act  as  well  as  any  one  of  the  ladies  on  the 
stage.  It  did  not  seem  to  her  very  difficult,  and  Dick 
had  told  her  that,  with  a  little  teaching,  she  would  be 
able  to  sing  as  well  as  Beaumont.  The  sad  expression 
that  her  face  wore  disappeared,  and  she  grew  impatient 
for  the  piece  to  finish  so  that  she  might  speak  to  Dick 
about  taking  lessons.  They  were  now  in  the  third  act, 
and  the  moment  the  curtain  was  rung  down  she  hurried 
away,  asking  as  she  went  the  way  to  the  stage-door. 
It  was  by  no  means  easy  to  find.  She  lost  herself  once 
or  twice  in  the  back  streets,  and  when  she  at  last  found 
the  right  place,  the  hallkeeper  refused  her  admittance. 

'  Do  you  belong  to  the  company?' 

After  a  moment's  hesitation  Kate  replied  that  she 
did  not;  but  that  moment's  hesitation  was  sufficient  for 
the  porter,  and  he  at  once  said,  '  Pass  on ;  you'll  find 
Mr.  Lennox  on  the  stage.' 


182  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

Timidly  she  walked  up  a  narrow  passage  filled  with 
men  talking  at  the  top  of  their  voices,  and  from  thence 
made  her  way  into  the  wings.  There  she  was  told  that 
Mr.  Lennox  was  up  in  his  room,  but  would  be  down 
shortly. 

For  a  moment  Kate  could  not  realize  where  she  was, 
so  different  was  the  stage  now  from  what  it  had  been 
whenever  she  had  seen  it  before.  The  present  aspect 
was  an  entirely  new  one. 

It  was  dark  like  a  cellar,  and  in  the  flaring  light  that 
spurted  from  an  iron  gas-pipe,  the  stage  carpenter  car- 
ried rocking  pieces  of  scenery  to  and  fro.  The  audi- 
torium was  a  round  blank  overclouded  in  a  deep  twi- 
light, through  which  Kate  saw  the  long  form  of  a  grey 
cat  moving  slowly  round  the  edge  of  the  upper  boxes. 

Getting  into  a  corner  so  as  to  be  out  of  the  way  of 
the  people  who  were  walking  up  and  down  the  stage, 
she  matured  her  plans  for  the  cultivation  of  her  voice, 
and  waited  patiently  for  her  lover  to  finish  dressing. 
This  he  took  some  time  to  do,  and  when  he  did  at  length 
come  downstairs,  he  was  of  course  surrounded;  every- 
body as  usual  wanted  to  speak  to  him,  but,  gallantly 
offering  her  his  arm,  and  bending  his  head,  he  asked 
in  a  whisper  how  she  liked  the  piece,  and  insisted  on 
hearing  what  she  thought  of  this  and  that  part  before 
he  replied  to  any  one  of  the  crowd  of  friends  who  in  turn 
strove  to  attract  his  attention.  This  was  very  flatter- 
ing, but  she  was  nevertheless  obliged  to  relinquish  her 
plan  of  explaining  to  him  there  and  then  her  desire  to 
learn  singing.  He  could  not  keep  his  mind  fixed  on 
what  she  was  saying.  Mortimer  was  telling  a  story  at 
which  everybody  was  screaming,  and  just  at  her  elbow 
Dubois  and  Montgomery  were  engaged  in  a  violent 
argument  regarding  the  use  of  consecutive  fifths.  But 
besides  these  distractions  there  was  a  tall  thin  man 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  18$ 

who  kept  nudging  away  at  Dick's  elbow,  begging  of 
him  to  come  over  to  his  place,  and  saying  that  he  would 
give  him  as  good  a  glass  of  whiskey  as  he  had  ever 
tasted.  Nobody  knew  who  the  man  was,  but  Dick 
thought  he  had  met  him  somewhere  up  in  the  North. 

'  I've  been  about,  gentlemen,  in  America,  and  in 
France,  and  I  lead  a  bacheler  life.  My  house  is  across 
the  way,  and  if  you'll  do  me  the  honour  to  come  in  and 
have  a  glass  with  me,  I  shall  feel  highly  honoured.  If 
there's  one  thing  I  do  enjoy  more  than  another,  it's 
the  conversation  of  intellectual  men,  and  after  the  per- 
formance of  to-night  I  don't  see  how  I  can  do  better 
than  to  come  to  you  for  it.  But,'  he  continued  gallantly, 
'  if  I  said  just  now  that  I  was  a  bachelor,  it  is,  I  assure 
you,  not  because  I  dislike  the  sex.  My  solitary  state  is 
my  misfortune,  not  my  fault,  and  if  these  ladies  will 
accompany  you,  gentlemen,  need  I  say  that  I  shall  be 
charmed  and  honoured?' 

'  We'll  do  the  honouring  and  the  ladies  will  do  the 
charming,'  Mortimer  said,  and  on  these  words  the  whole 
party  followed  the  tall  thin  man  to  his  house,  a  small 
affair  with  a  porch  and  green  blinds  such  as  might  be 
rented  by  a  well-to-do  commercial  traveller. 

The  furniture  was  mahogany  and  leather,  and  when 
the  sideboard  was  opened,  the  acrid  odour  of  tea  and 
the  sickly  smells  of  stale  bread  and  rank  butter  were 
diffused  through  the  room;  but  these  were  quickly  domi- 
nated by  the  fumes  of  the  malt.  A  bottle  of  port  was 
decanted  for  the  ladies.  To  the  host  nothing  was  too 
much  trouble;  his  guests  must  eat  as  well  as  drink, 
and  he  went  down  to  the  kitchen  and  helped  the  maid- 
servant to  bring  up  all  the  eatables  that  were  in  the 
house — some  cold  beef  and  cheese — and  after  having 
partaken  of  these  the  company  stretched  themselves  in 
their  chairs.  Hayes  drank  his  whiskey  in  silence,  while 
13 


184  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

Montgomery,  his  legs  thrown  over  the  arm  of  his  chair, 
tried  to  get  in  a  word  concerning  the  refrain  of  a  comic 
song  he  had  just  finished  scoring;  but  as  the  song  was 
not  going  to  be  sung  in  any  of  the  pieces  they  were 
touring  with,  no  one  was  interested,  and  Mortimer's 
talk  about  the  regeneration  of  the  theatre  was  becom- 
ing so  boring  that  Leslie  and  Beaumont  had  begun  to 
think  of  bedtime,  and  might  have  taken  their  departure 
if  Dubois  had  not  said  that  all  the  great  French 
actresses  had  lovers  and  that  the  English  would  do 
well  to  follow  their  examples.  A  variety  of  opinions 
broke  forth,  and  everyone  seemed  to  wake  up;  anecdotes 
were  told  that  brought  the  colour  to  Kate's  cheeks  and 
made  her  feel  uncomfortable.  Dubois  had  lived  a  great 
deal  in  France ;  it  was  not  certain  that  he  had  not  acted 
in  French,  and  sitting  with  his  bishop's  hat  tilted  on 
the  back  of  his  head,  he  related  that  Agar  had  described 
George  Sand  as  a  sort  of  pouncing  disease  that  had 
affected  her  health  more  than  all  her  other  lovers  put 
together.  Dubois  was  declared  to  have  insulted  the 
profession;  Dick  agreed  that  Dubois  did  not  know  what 
he  was  talking  about — George  Sand  was  a  woman,  not 
a  man — and  Montgomery,  who  had  a  sister-in-law 
starring  in  Scotland,  refused  to  be  appeased  until  he 
was  asked  to  accompany  Leslie  and  Bret  in  a  duet.  The 
thin  man,  as  everybody  now  called  him,  said  he  had 
never  been  so  much  touched  in  his  life,  a  statement  which 
Beaumont  did  her  best  to  justify  by  going  to  the  piano 
and  singing  three  songs  one  after  another.  The  third 
was  a  signal  for  departure,  and  while  Montgomery 
vowed  under  his  breath  that  it  was  quite  enough  to  have 
to  listen  to  Beaumont  during  business  hours,  Dick  tried 
to  awaken  Hayes.  He  had  fallen  fast  asleep.  Their 
kind  host  said  that  he  would  put  him  up  for  the  night, 
but  the  mummers  thought  they  would  be  able  to  get 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  185 

him  home.  So,  bidding  the  kindest  of  farewells  to  their 
host,  whom  they  hoped  they  would  see  the  following 
evening  at  the  theatre,  they  stumbled  into  the  street, 
pushing  and  carrying  the  drunken  man  between  them. 
It  was  very  hard  to  get  Hayes  along;  every  ten  or  a 
dozen  yards  he  would  insist  on  stopping  in  the  middle 
of  the  roadway  to  argue  the  value  and  the  sincerity  of 
the  friendship  his  comrades  bore  for  him.  Mortimer 
strove  to  pacify  him,  saying  that  he  would  stand  in  a 
puddle  all  night  if  by  doing  so  he  might  prove  that  he 
loved  him,  and  Dubois  entreated  him  to  believe  him 
when  he  said  that  to  sit  with  him  under  a  cold  Septem- 
ber moon  talking  of  the  dear  dead  days  would  be  a  bliss 
that  he  could  not  forego.  But  the  comedian's  jokes 
soon  began  to  seem  idle  and  flat,  and  the  ladies  pro- 
posed to  walk  on  in  front,  leaving  the  gentlemen  to  get 
their  friend  home  as  best  they  could. 

'  You're  thinking  of  your  beds,'  Dick  cried,  and  that 
reminded  him  that  the  hotel-keeper  had  told  him  that 
he  shut  his  doors  at  eleven  and  would  open  them  for 
no  one  before  morning. 

'  What  are  we  to  do  ?'  asked  Leslie ;  '  it's  very  cold. 

'  We'll  ring  him  up/  said  Dubois. 

'But  if  he  doesn't  answer?'  suggested  Bret. 

'  I'll  jolly  soon  make  him  answer,'  said  Dick.  '  Now 
then,  Hayes,  wake  up,  old  man,  and  push  along.' 

'  Pou-sh-al-long !  How  can — you — talk  to  me  like 
that?  Yer — yer — shunting  me — me — for  one  of  those 
other  fellows.' 

'  We'll  talk  about  that  in  the  morning,  old  man.  Now, 
Mortimer,  you  get  hold  of  his  other  arm  and  we'll  run 
him  along.' 

Mr.  Hayes  struggled,  declaring  the  while  he  would 
no  longer  believe  in  the  world's  friendship;  but  with 
Montgomery  pushing  from  behind,  the  last  hundred 


186  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

yards  were  soon  accomplished,  and  the  drunken  burden 
deposited  against  the  wall  of  the  passage. 

Dick  pulled  the  bell;  the  whole  party  listened  to  the 
distant  tinkling,  and  after  a  minute  or  two  of  suspense, 
Mortimer  said: 

'  That  won't  do,  Dick;  ring  again.  We  shall  be  here 
all  night.' 

Tinkle,  tinkle,  tinkle,  went  the  bell,  and  a  husky 
voice,  issuing  from  the  dark  shadow  of  the  wall,  said: 

'  I  rang  for  another  whiskey,  waiter,  that's  all.' 

'  The  still-room  maid  has  gone  to  sleep,  sir,'  Morti- 
mer answered;  and  the  bell  was  rung  again  and  again, 
and  whilst  one  of  the  company  was  pulling  at  the  wire, 
another  was  hammering  away  with  the  knocker.  All 
the  same,  no  answer  could  be  obtained,  and  the  mum- 
mers consulted  Leslie  and  Bret,  who  proposed  that  they 
should  seek  admittance  at  another  hotel;  Dubois,  that 
they  should  beg  hospitality  of  the  other  members  of  the 
company;  Montgomery,  that  they  should  go  back  to  the 
theatre.  But  the  hotel-keeper  had  no  right  to  lock  them 
out,  and  they  had  a  perfect  right  to  break  into  his  house, 
and  the  chances  they  ran  of  '  doing  a  week '  were 
anxiously  debated  as  they  searched  for  a  piece  of  wood 
to  serve  as  a  ram.  None  of  sufficient  size  could  be 
found,  much  to  the  relief  of  the  ladies  and  Dubois,  who 
strongly  advised  Dick  to  renounce  this  door-smashing 
experiment. 

'  Oh,  Dick,  pray  don't/  whispered  Kate.  '  What  does 
it  matter;  it  will  be  daylight  in  a  few  hours.' 

'  That's  all  very  well,  but  I  tell  you  he  has  no  right 
to  lock  us  out;  he's  a  licensed  hotel-keeper.  Are  you 
game,  Mortimer?  We  can  burst  in  the  door  with  our 
shoulders.' 

'  Game !'  said  Mortimer,  in  a  nasal  note  that  echoed 
down  the  courtyard;  'partridges  are  in  season  in  Sep- 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  187 

tember.  Here  goes!'  and  taking  a  run,  he  jumped  with 
his  full  weight  against  the  door. 

'  Out  of  the  way,'  cried  Dick,  breaking  away  from 
Kate,  and  hurling  his  huge  frame  a  little  closer  to  the 
lock  than  the  comedian  had  done. 

The  excitement  being  now  at  boiling  pitch,  the  work 
was  begun  in  real  earnest,  and  as  they  darted  in  regular 
succession  out  of  the  shadow  of  the  buttress  across  the 
clear  stream  of  moonlight  flowing  down  the  flagstones, 
they  appeared  like  a  procession  of  figures  thrown  on 
a  cloth  by  a  magic-lantern.  Mr.  Hayes's  white  stocking 
served  for  a  line,  and  bump,  bump,  they  went  against 
the  door.  Each  effort  was  watched  with  different  de- 
grees of  interest  by  the  ladies.  When  little  Dubois 
toddled  forward,  and  sprang  with  what  little  impetus  his 
short  legs  could  give  him,  it  was  difficult  not  to  laugh, 
and  when  Montgomery's  reed-like  shanks  were  seen  pass- 
ing, Kate  clung  to  Miss  Leslie  in  fear  that  he  would 
crush  his  frail  body  against  the  door;  but  when  it  came 
to  the  turn  of  any  of  the  big  ones,  the  excitement  was 
great.  Mortimer  and  Bret  were  watched  eagerly,  but 
most  faith  was  placed  in  Dick,  not  only  for  his  greater 
weight,  but  for  his  superior  and  more  plucky  way  of 
jumping.  Springing  from  the  very  middle  of  the  pas- 
sage, his  head  back  and  his  shoulder  forward,  he  went 
like  a  thunderbolt  against  the  door.  It  seemed  wonder- 
ful that  he  did  not  bring  down  the  wall  as  well  as  the 
woodwork,  and  a  round  of  applause  rewarded  each  ef- 
fort. Hayes,  who  fancied  himself  in  bed,  and  that  the 
waiter  was  calling  him  at  some  strange  hour  in  the 
morning,  shouted  occasionally  the  most  fearful  of  curses 
from  his  dark  corner.  The  noise  was  terrific,  and  the 
clapping  of  hands,  shrieks  of  laughter,  and  cries  of  en- 
couragement reverberated  through  the  echoing  passage 
and  the  silent  moonlight. 


188  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

At  last  Dick's  turn  came  again,  and  enraged  by  past 
failures,  he  put  forth  his  whole  strength  and  jumped 
from  the  white  stocking  with  his  full  weight  against  the 
door.  It  gave  way  with  a  crash,  and  at  that  moment 
the  proprietor  appeared,  holding  a  candle  in  his  hand. 

Everybody  made  a  rush,  and  picking  up  Dick,  who 
was  not  in  the  least  hurt,  they  struck  matches  on  the 
wall  and  groped  their  way  up  to  their  rooms,  heedless 
of  the  denunciations  of  the  enraged  proprietor,  who  de- 
clared that  he  would  take  an  action  against  them  all. 
In  his  dressing-gown,  and  by  the  light  of  his  candle, 
he  surveyed  his  dismantled  threshold,  thinking  how  he 
might  fasten  up  his  house  for  the  night.  The  first  ob- 
ject he  caught  sight  of  was  Mr.  Hayes's  white  stocking. 
As  he  did  so  a  wicked  light  gleamed  in  his  eyes,  and 
after  a  few  efforts  to  awake  the  drunkard  he  walked  to 
the  gateway  and  looked  up  and  down  the  street  to  see 
if  a  policeman  were  in  sight.  In  real  truth  he  was 
doubtful  as  to  his  rights  to  lock  visitors  out  of  their 
hotel,  and  did  not  feel  disposed  to  discuss  the  question 
before  a  magistrate.  But  what  could  be  said  against 
him  for  requesting  the  removal  of  a  drunken  man?  He 
did  not  know  who  he  was,  nor  was  he  bound  to  find  out. 
So  argued  the  proprietor  of  the  Hen  and  Chickens,  and 
Mr.  Hayes,  still  protesting  he  did  not  want  to  be  called 
before  ten,  was  dragged  off  to  the  station. 

Next  morning  the  hotel-keeper  denied  knowing  any- 
thing whatever  about  the  matter.  It  was  true  he  had 
called  the  policeman's  attention  to  the  fact  that  there 
was  a  man  asleep  under  the  archway,  but  he  did  not 
know  that  the  man  was  Mr.  Hayes.  This  story  was  re- 
jected by  the  company,  and  vowing  that  they  would 
never  again  go  within  a  mile  of  his  shop,  they  all  went 
to  see  poor  Hayes  pulled  out  before  the  beak.  It  was 
a  forty-shilling  affair  or  the  option  of  a  week,  and  in 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  189 

revenge,  Dick  invited  last  night's  party  to  dinner  at  a 
restaurant.  They  weren't  going  to  put  their  money  into 
the  pocket  of  that  cad  of  an  inn-keeper.  Hayes  was 
the  hero  of  the  hour,  and  he  made  everybody  roar  with 
laughter  at  the  way  in  which  he  related  his  experiences. 
But  after  a  time  Dick,  who  had  always  an  eye  to  busi- 
ness, drew  his  chair  up  to  Mortimer's,  and  begged  of 
him  to  try  to  think  of  some  allusions  to  the  adventures 
which  could  be  worked  into  the  piece.  The  question 
was  a  serious  one,  and  until  it  was  time  to  go  to  the 
theatre  the  art  of  gagging  was  warmly  argued.  Dubois 
held  the  most  liberal  views.  He  said  that  after  a  cer- 
tain number  of  nights  the  author's  words  should  be 
totally  disregarded  in  favour  of  topical  remarks.  Bret, 
who  was  slow  of  wit,  maintained  that  the  dignity  of  a 
piece  could  only  be  maintained  by  sticking  to  the  text, 
and  cited  examples  to  support  his  opinion.  It  was, 
however,  finally  agreed  that  whenever  Mortimer  came 
on  the  stage,  he  should  say,  '  Derby  isn't  a  safe  place 
to  get  drunk  in/  and  that  Dubois  should  reply,  '  Rather 
not.' 

Owing  to  these  little  emendations,  the  piece  went 
with  a  scream,  the  receipts  were  over  a  hundred,  and 
Morton  and  Cox's  Operatic  Company,  having  done  a 
very  satisfactory  week's  business,  assembled  at  the  sta- 
tion on  Sunday  morning  bound  for  Blackpool. 

Kate  and  Dick  jumped  into  a  compartment  with  the 
same  people  as  before,  plus  a  chorus-girl  who  was 
making  up  to  Montgomery  in  the  hopes  of  being  al- 
lowed to  say  on  the  entrance  of  the  duke,  '  Oh,  what 
a  jolly  fellow  he  is!'  Mortimer  shouted  to  Hayes,  who 
always  went  with  the  pipe-smokers,  and  Dick  spoke 
about  the  possibility  of  producing  some  new  piece  at 
Liverpool.  Dubois,  Mortimer,  Bret,  and  the  chorus- 
girl  settled  down  to  a  game  of  nap.  Dick,  Leslie,  and 


190  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

Montgomery  were  singing  tunes  or  fragments  of  tunes 
to  each  other,  and  talking  about  '  effects  '  that  might  be 
introduced  into  the  new  piece.  But  would  Dick  pro- 
duce a  new  piece? 

The  conversation  changed,  and  it  was  asked  if  no 
money  could  be  saved  this  trip  in  the  taking  of  the 
tickets,  and  Dick  was  closely  questioned  as  to  when,  in 
his  opinion,  it  would  be  safe  to  try  their  little  plant  on 
again.  Instead  of  answering  he  leant  back,  and  gradu- 
ally a  pleasant  smile  began  to  trickle  over  his  broad 
face.  He  was  evidently  maturing  some  plan.  '  What  is 
it,  Dick?  Do  say  like  a  good  fellow/  was  repeated 
many  times,  but  he  refused  to  give  any  reply.  This 
aroused  the  curiosity  of  the  company,  and  it  grew  to 
burning  pitch  when  the  train  drew  up  at  a  station  and 
Dick  began  a  conversation  with  the  guard  concerning 
the  length  of  time  they  would  have  at  Preston,  and 
where  they  would  find  the  train  that  was  to  take  them 
on  to  Blackpool. 

'  You'll  have  a  quarter  of  an  hour's  wait  at  Preston. 
You'll  arrive  there  at  4.20,  and  at  thirty-five  past  you'll 
find  the  train  for  Blackpool  drawn  up  on  the  right-hand 
side  of  the  station.' 

'  Thanks  very  much/  replied  Dick  as  he  tipped  the 
guard;  and  then,  turning  his  head  towards  his  friends, 
he  whispered,  '  It's  as  right  as  a  trivet;  I  shall  be  back 
in  a  minute.' 

'  Where's  he  off  to  ?'  asked  everybody. 

'  He's  just  gone  into  the  telegraph  office,'  said  Mont- 
gomery, who  was  stationed  at  the  window. 

A  moment  after  Dick  was  seen  running  up  the  plat- 
form, his  big  hat  giving  him  the  appearance  of  an 
American.  As  he  passed  each  compartment  of  their  car- 
riage he  whispered  something  in  at  the  window. 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  191 

'  What  can  he  be  saying  ?  What  can  he  be  arrang- 
ing?" asked  Miss  Leslie. 

'  I  don't  care  how  he  arranges  it  as  long  as  I  get  a 
drink  on  the  cheap  at  Preston/  said  Mortimer. 

'  That's  the  main  point/  replied  Dubois. 

'Well,  Dick,  what  is  it?'  exclaimed  everybody,  as  the 
big  man  sat  down  beside  Kate. 

'  The  moment  the  train  arrives  at  Preston  we  must 
all  make  a  rush  for  the  refreshment-rooms  and  ask  for 
Mr.  Simpson's  lunch.' 

'Who's  Mr.  Simpson?  What  lunch?  Oh,  do  tell  us! 
What  a  mysterious  fellow  you  are !'  were  the  exclama- 
tions reiterated  all  the  way  along  the  route.  But  the 
only  answer  they  received  was  '  Now  what  does  it  mat- 
ter who  Mr.  Simpson  is?  Eat  and  drink  all  you  can, 
and  for  the  life  of  you  don't  ask  who  Mr.  Simpson  is, 
but  only  for  his  lunch.' 

And  as  soon  as  the  train  stopped  actors,  actresses, 
chorus-girls  and  men,  conductor,  prompter,  manager, 
and  baggage-men  rushed  like  a  school  towards  the  glass 
doors  of  the  refreshment-room,  where  they  found  a 
handsome  collation  laid  out  for  forty  people. 

'Where's  Mr.  Simpson's  lunch?'  shouted  Dick. 

'  Here,  sir,  here ;  all  is  ready,'  replied  two  obliging 
waiters. 

'Where's  Mr.  Simpson's  lunch?'  echoed  Dubois  and 
Montgomery. 

'  This  way,  sir ;  what  will  you  take,  sir  ?  Cold  beef, 
chicken  and  ham,  or  a  little  soup?'  asked  half  a  dozen 
waiters. 

The  ladies  were  at  first  shy  of  helping  themselves, 
and  hung  back  a  little,  but  Dick  drove  them  on,  and, 
the  first  step  taken,  they  ate  of  everything.  But  Kate 
clung  to  Dick  timidly,  refusing  all  offers  of  chicken, 
ham,  and  cold  beef. 


192  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  But  is  this  paid  for  ?'  she  whispered  to  him. 

'  Of  course  it  is.  Mr.  Simpson's  lunch.  Take  care 
of  what  you're  sayin'.  Tuck  into  this  plate  of  chicken; 
will  you  have  a  bit  of  tongue  with  it?'  and  not  having 
the  courage  to  refuse,  Kate  complied  in  silence.  Dick 
crammed  her  pockets  with  cakes.  But  soon  the  waiters 
began  to  wonder  at  the  absence  of  Mr.  Simpson,  and 
had  already  commenced  their  inquiries. 

Approaching  Mortimer,  the  head  waiter  asked  that 
gentleman  if  Mr.  Simpson  was  in  the  room. 

'  He's  just  slipped  round  to  the  bookstall  to  get  a 
Sunday  paper.  He'll  be  back  in  a  minute,  and  if  you'll 
get  me  another  bit  of  chicken  in  the  meantime  I  shall 
feel  obliged.' 

In  five  minutes  more  the  table  was  cleared,  and 
everybody  made  a  movement  to  retire,  and  it  was  then 
that  the  refreshment-room  people  began  to  exhibit  a 
very  genuine  interest  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Simpson. 
One  waiter  begged  of  Dick  to  describe  the  gentleman  to 
him,  another  besought  of  Dubois  to  say  at  what  end  of 
the  table  Mr.  Simpson  had  had  his  lunch.  In  turn  they 
appealed  to  the  ladies  and  to  the  gentlemen,  but  were 
always  met  with  the  same  answer.  '  Just  saw  him  a 
minute  ago,  going  up  to  the  station;  if  you  run  after 
him  you're  sure  to  catch  him.'  '  Mr.  Simpson?  Why, 
he  was  here  a  minute  ago;  I  think  he  was  speaking 
about  sending  a  telegram;  perhaps  he's  up  in  the  office.' 
The  train  bell  then  rang,  and,  like  a  herd  in  motion,  the 
whole  company  crowded  to  the  train.  The  guard 
shouted,  the  panic-stricken  waiters  tumbled  over  the 
luggage,  and,  running  from  carriage  to  carriage,  begged 
to  be  informed  as  to  Mr.  Simpson's  whereabouts. 

'  He's  in  the  end  carriage,  I  tell  you,  back  there,  just 
at  the  other  end  of  the  train.' 

The  seedy  black  coats  were  then  seen  hurrying  down 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  193 

the  flags,  but  only  to  return  in  a  minute,  breathless,  for 
further  information.  But  this  could  not  last  forever, 
and  the  guard  blew  his  whistle,  the  actors  began  gag- 
ging. And,  oh,  the  singing,  the  whistling,  the  cheers 
of  the  mummers  as  the  train  rolled  away  into  the  coun- 
try, now  all  agleam  with  the  sunset!  Tattoos  were 
beaten  with  sticks  against  the  woodwork  of  each  com- 
partment; Dick,  with  his  body  half  out  of  the  window 
and  his  curls  blowing  in  the  wind,  yelled  at  Hayes. 
Montgomery  disputed  with  Dubois  for  possession  of  the 
other  window  and  three  chorus-girls  giggled  and, 
munching  stolen  cakes,  tried  to  get  into  conversation 
with  Kate.  But  though  love  had  compensated  her  for 
virtue,  nothing  could  make  amends  to  her  for  her  loss 
of  honesty.  She  could  break  a  moral  law  with  less 
suffering  than  might  be  expected  from  her  bringing  up, 
but  the  sentiment  the  most  characteristic,  and  naturally 
so,  of  the  middle  classes  is  a  respect  for  the  property 
of  others;  and  she  had  eaten  of  stolen  bread.  Op- 
pressed and  sickened  by  this  idea,  she  shrank  back  in 
her  corner,  and  filled  with  a  sordid  loathing  of  herself, 
she  moved  instinctively  away  from  Dick. 

At  Blackpool  Mr.  Williams's  pimply  face  was  the  first 
thing  that  greeted  them.  There  was  the  usual  crowd 
of  landladies  who  presented  their  cards  and  extolled 
the  comfort  and  cleanliness  of  their  rooms.  One  of 
these  women  was  introduced  and  specially  recom- 
mended by  Mr.  Williams.  He  declared  that  her  place 
was  a  little  paradise,  and  an  hour  later,  still  plunged  in 
conscientious  regrets  at  having  eaten  a  luncheon  that 
had  not  been  paid  for,  Kate  sat  sipping  her  tea  in  a 
rose-coloured  room. 


XIII 


BUT  next  morning  at  Blackpool  Kate  woke  up  languid, 
and  seeing  Dick  fast  asleep,  she  thought  it  would  be  a 
pity  to  awaken  him,  and  twisting  her  pretty  legs  out  of 
bed,  she  went  into  the  sitting-room,  with  the  intention 
of  looking  after  Dick's  breakfast,  and  found  it  laid  out 
on  the  round  table  in  the  rose-coloured  sitting-room,  the 
napery  of  exceeding  whiteness.  The  two  armchairs 
drawn  by  the  quietly  burning  fire  inspired  indolence, 
and  tempted  at  once  by  the  freshness  of  her  dressing- 
gown  and  the  warmth  of  the  room,  she  fell  into  a  sort 
of  happy  reverie,  from  which  she  awoke  in  a  few  min- 
utes prompted  by  a  desire  to  see  Dick;  to  see  him 
asleep ;  to  awaken  him ;  to  talk  to  him ;  to  upbraid  him 
for  his  laziness.  The  room,  full  of  the  intimacy  of 
their  life,  enchanted  her,  and  half  in  shame,  half  in 
delight,  she  affected  to  arrange  the  pillows  while  he  but- 
toned his  collar.  When  this  was  accomplished  she  led 
him  triumphantly  to  the  breakfast  table,  and  with  one 
arm  resting  on  his  knees  watched  the  white  shapes  of 
the  eggs  seen  through  the  bubbling  water.  This  was 
the  great  business  of  the  morning.  He  would  pay  two- 
pence a  piece  to  have  fresh  eggs,  and  was  most  particu- 
lar that  they  should  be  boiled  for  three  minutes,  and 
not  one  second  more.  The  landlady  brought  up  the 
beefsteak  and  the  hot  milk  for  the  coffee,  and  if  any 

194 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  195 

friend  came  in  orders  were  sent  down  instantly  for  more 
food.  Such  extravagance  could  not  fail  to  astonish 
Kate,  accustomed  as  she  had  been  from  her  earliest 
years  to  a  strict  and  austere  mode  of  life.  Frequently 
she  begged  of  Dick  to  be  more  economical,  but  having 
always  lived  Bohemian-like  on  the  money  easily  gained, 
he  paid  very  little  attention  to  what  she  said,  beyond 
advising  her  to  eat  more  steak  and  put  colour  into  her 
cheeks.  And  once  the  ice  of  habit  was  broken,  she  like- 
wise began  to  abandon  herself  thoroughly  to  the  pleas- 
ures of  these  rich  warm  breakfasts,  and  to  look  forward 
to  the  idle  hours  of  digestion  which  followed,  and  the 
happy  dreams  that  could  then  be  indulged  in.  Before 
the  tea-things  were  removed  Dick  opened  the  morning 
paper,  and  from  time  to  time  read  aloud  scraps  of  what- 
ever news  he  thought  interesting.  These  generally  con- 
cerned the  latest  pieces  produced  in  London;  and,  as 
if  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  she  knew  nothing  of  what 
he  was  speaking  of,  he  explained  to  her  his  views  on  the 
subject — why  such  and  such  plays  would,  and  others 
would  not,  do  for  the  country.  Kate  listened  with 
riveted  attention,  although  she  only  understood  half  of 
what  was  told  her,  and  the  flattery  of  being  taken  into 
his  confidence  was  a  soft  and  fluttering  joy.  In  these 
moments  all  fear  that  he  would  one  day  desert  her  died 
away  like  an  ugly  wind ;  and,  with  the  noise  of  the  town 
drumming  dimly  in  the  distance,  they  abandoned  them- 
selves to  the  pleasure  of  thinking  of  each  other.  Dick 
congratulated  himself  on  the  choice  he  had  made,  and 
assured  himself  that  he  would  never  know  again  the 
ennui  of  living  alone.  She  was  one  of  the  prettiest 
women  you  could  see  anywhere,  and,  luckily,  not  too 
exacting.  In  fact,  she  hadn't  a  fault  if  it  weren't  that 
she  was  a  bit  cold,  and  he  couldn't  understand  how  it 
was;  women  were  not  generally  cold  with  him.  The 


196  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

question  interested  him  profoundly,  and  as  he  consid- 
ered it  his  glance  wandered  from  the  loose  blue  masses 
of  hair  to  the  white  satin  shoe  which  she  held  to  the 
red  blaze. 

'  Dick,  do  you  think  you'll  always  love  me  as  you  do 
now  ?' 

'  I'm  sure  of  it,  dear.' 

*  It  seems  to  me,  if  one  really  loves  once  one  must  love 
always.  But  I  don't  know  how  I  can  talk  to  you  like 
this,  for  how  can  you  respect  me?  I've  been  so  very 
wicked.' 

'  What  nonsense,  Kate !  How  can  you  talk  like  that  ? 
I  wouldn't  respect  you  if  you  went  on  living  with  a  man 
you  didn't  care  about.' 

'  Well,  I  liked  him  well  enough  till  you  came,  dear, 
but  I  couldn't  then — it  wasn't  all  my  fault;  but  if  you 
should  cease  to  care  for  me  I  think  I  should  die.  But 
you  won't;  tell  me  that  you  won't,  dear  Dick.' 

At  that  moment  the  door  opened;  it  was  Montgomery 
come  to  see  them.  Kate  jumped  off  Dick's  knees,  and, 
settling  her  skirts  with  the  pretty  movement  of  a  sur- 
prised woman,  threw  herself  into  a  chair  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  fireplace.  The  musician  had  come  to  speak 
about  his  opera,  especially  the  opening  chorus,  about 
which  he  could  not  make  up  his  mind. 

'  My  boy,'  said  Dick,  '  don't  be  afraid  of  making  it 
too  long.  There's  nothing  like  having  a  good  strong 
number  to  begin  with — something  with  grip  in  it,  you 
know.' 

Montgomery  looked  vaguely  into  space;  he  was  obvi- 
ously not  listening,  but  was  trying  to  follow  out  some 
musical  scheme  that  was  running  in  his  head.  After 
a  long  silence  he  said: 

'  What  I  can't  make  up  my  mind  about  is  whether  I 
ought  to  concert  that  first  number  or  have  it  sung  in 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  197 

unison.  Now  listen.  The  scene  is  the  wedding  festivi- 
ties of  Prince  Florimel,  who  is  about  to  wed  Eva,  the 
daughter  of  the  Duke  of  Perhapsburg — devilish  good 
name,  you  know.  Well,  then,  the  flower-girls  come  on 
first,  scattering  flowers;  they  proceed  two  by  two  and 
arrange  themselves  in  line  on  both  sides  of  the  stage. 
They  are  followed  by  trumpeters  and  a  herald ;  then 
come  the  ladies-in-waiting,  the  pages,  the  courtiers,  and 
the  palace  servants.  Very  well;  the  first  four  lines, 
you  know — "  Hail !  hail !  the  festive  day  " — that,  of 
course,  is  sung  by  the  sopranos.' 

'  You  surely  don't  want  to  concert  that,  do  you  ?'  in- 
terrupted Dick. 

'Of  course  not;  you  must  think  me  an  ignoramus. 
The  first  four  lines  are  sung  naturally  in  unison;  then 
there  is  a  repeat,  in  which  the  tenors  and  basses  are 
singing  against  the  women's  voices.  By  that  time  the 
stage  will  be  full.  Well,  then,  what  I'm  thinking  of 
doing,  when  I  get  to  the  second  part,  you  know — "  May 
the  stars  much  pleasure  send  you,  may  romance  and  love 
attend  you,"  is  to  repeat  "  May  the  stars."  ' 

'  Oh,  I  see  what  you  mean,'  said  Dick,  who  began  to 
grow  interested.  '  You'll  give  "  May  the  stars  "  first 
to  the  sopranos,  and  then  repeat  with  the  tenors  and 
basses?' 

'  That's  it.  I'll  show  you,'  replied  Montgomery, 
rushing  to  the  piano.  '  Here  are  the  sopranos  singing 
in  G,  "  May  the  stars  ";  tenors,  "  May  the  stars  ";  tenors 
and  sopranos,  "Much  pleasure  send  you";  basses  an 
octave  lower,  "  May  the  stars — may  stars."  Nov  I'm 
going  to  join  them  together — "  May  the  stars."  ' 

Twisting  round  rapidly  on  the  piano-stool,  Mont- 
gomery pushed  his  glasses  high  up  on  his  beak-like 
nose,  and  demanded  an  opinion.  But  before  Dick  could 
say  a  word  a  kick  of  the  long  legs  brought  the  musician 


198  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

again  face  to  the  keyboard,  and  for  several  minutes  he 
crashed  away,  occasionally  shouting  forth  an  explana- 
tory remark,  or  muttering  an  apology  when  he  failed  to 
reach  the  high  soprano  notes.  The  love-song,  however, 
was  too  much  for  him,  and,  laughing  at  his  own  break- 
down, he  turned  from  the  piano  and  consented  to  resume 
the  interrupted  conversation.  Then  the  plot  and  musical 
setting  of  Montgomery's  new  work  was  discussed.  .  The 
names  of  Offenbach  and  Herve  were  mentioned;  both 
were  admitted  to  be  geniuses,  but  the  latter,  it  was  de- 
clared, would  have  been  the  greater  had  he  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  a  musical  education.  Various  anecdotes  were 
related  as  to  how  the  latter  had  achieved  his  first  suc- 
cesses, and  Montgomery,  who  questioned  the  possibility 
of  a  man  who  could  not  write  down  the  notes  being  able 
to  compose  the  whole  score  of  an  opera,  maintained  it 
was  ridiculous  to  talk  of  dictating  a  finale. 

During  these  discussions  Kate  often  asked  herself  if 
she  would  be  able  to  take  part  in  these  artistic  discus- 
sions. The  conversation  shifted  so  rapidly  that  even 
when  she  succeeded  in  picking  up  the  thread  of  an  idea 
it  soon  got  entangled  with  another,  and  she  began  to 
despair.  But  notwithstanding  these  digressions,  con- 
stant reference  was  made  to  Montgomery's  new  piece; 
and  when  the  names  of  the  ladies  of  the  company  were 
being  run  over  in  search  of  one  who  could  take  the  part 
of  a  page,  with  a  song  and  twenty  lines  of  dialogue  to 
speak,  Dick  said: 

'  Well,  perhaps  it  isn't  for  me  to  say  it,  but  I  assure 
you  that  I  don't  know  a  nicer  soprano  voice  than  Mrs. 
Ede's.' 

'  Ho,  ho !'  cried  Montgomery,  twisting  his  legs  over 
the  arm  of  the  chair,  '  how  is  it  I  never  heard  of  this 
before?  But  won't  you  sing  something,  Mrs.  Ede?  If 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  199 

you  have  any  of  your  songs  here  I'll  try  the  accompani- 
ment over.' 

Kate,  who  did  not  know  a  crotchet  from  a  semi- 
quaver, grew  frightened  at  this  talk  of  trying  over  ac- 
companiments, and  tried  to  stammer  out  some  apologies 
and  excuses. 

'  Oh,  really,  Mr.  Montgomery,  I  assure  you  Dick  is 
only  joking.  I  don't  sing  at  all — I  don't  know  any- 
thing about  music.' 

'  Don't  you  mind  her ;  'tis  as  I  say :  she's  got  a  very 
nice  soprano  voice;  and  as  for  an  ear,  I  never  knew  a 
better  in  my  life.  There's  no  singing  flat  there,  I  can 
tell  you.  But,  seriously  speaking/  he  continued,  taking 
pity  on  Kate,  whose  face  expressed  the  agony  of  shame 
she  was  suffering,  '  of  course  I  know  well  enough  she 
don't  know  how  to  produce  her  voice;  she  never  had  a 
lesson  in  her  life,  but  I  think  you'll  agree  with  me, 
when  you  hear  it,  that  the  organ  is  there.  Do  sing 
something,  Kate.' 

Kate  cast  a  beseeching  glance  at  her  lover,  and  mur- 
mured some  unintelligible  words,  but  they  did  not  save 
her.  Montgomery  crossed  himself  over  the  stool,  and, 
after  running  his  fingers  over  the  keys,  said: 

'  Now,  sing  the  scale  after  me — do,  re,  mi,  fa,  sol,  la, 
la — that's  the  note;  try  to  get  that  clear — sol,  do!'  and 
Kate,  not  liking  to  disoblige  Dick,  sang  the  scale  after 
Montgomery  in  the  first  instance,  and  then,  encouraged 
by  her  success,  gave  it  by  herself,  first  in  one  octave  and 
then  in  the  other. 

'  Well,  don't  you  agree  with  me  ?'  said  Dick.  *  The 
organ  is  there,  and  there's  no  fluffing  the  notes;  they 
come  out  clear,  don't  they?' 

'  They   do,   indeed,'    replied   Montgomery,   casting   a 
warm  glance  of  admiration  at  Kate ;  '  but  I  should  so 
much  like  to  hear  Mrs.  Ede  sing  a  song.' 
14 


200  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  Oh,  I  really  couldn't * 

'  Nonsense !  Sing  the  song  of  "  The  Bells  "  in  the 
Cloches,'  said  Dick,  taking  her  by  the  arm.  She  pleaded 
and  argued,  but  it  was  no  use,  and  when  at  last  it  was 
decided  she  was  to  sing,  Montgomery,  who  had  in  the 
meantime  been  trying  the  finale  of  his  first  act  in  sev- 
eral different  ways,  stopped  short  and  said  suddenly: 

'  Oh,  I  beg  your  pardon ;  you're  going  to  sing  the  song 
of  "  The  Bells."  I'll  tell  you  when  to  begin — now, 
"  Though  they  often  tell  us  of  our  ancient  masters."  ' 

When  Kate  had  finished  singing  Montgomery  spun 
round,  bringing  himself  face  to  face  with  Dick,  and 
speaking  professionally,  said: 

'  'Pon  my  word,  it's  extraordinary.  Of  course  it  is  a 
head  voice,  but  as  soon  as  we  get  a  few  chest  notes — 
you  know  I  don't  pretend  to  be  able  to  teach  singing, 
but  after  a  year's  training  under  my  grandfather  Beau- 
mont wouldn't  be  in  the  same  street  with  you/ 

'  Yes,  but  as  he  isn't  here,'  replied  Dick,  who  always 
kept  an  eye  on  the  possible,  '  don't  you  think  it  would 
be  as  well  for  her  to  learn  a  little  music?' 

'  I  shall  be  only  too  delighted  to  teach  Mrs.  Ede  the 
little  I  know  myself.  I'll  come  in  the  morning,  and 
we'll  work  away  at  the  piano;  and  you  know/  continued 
Montgomery,  who  began  to  regret  the  confession  of  his 
inability  to  teach  singing,  '  although  I  don't  pretend  to 
be  able  to  do  what  my  grandfather  could  with  a  voice, 
still,  I  know  something  about  it.  I  used  to  attend  all 
his  singing-classes,  and  am  pretty  well  up  in  his 
method,  and — and — if  Mrs.  Ede  likes  I  shall  be  only 
too  happy  to  do  some  singing  with  her;  and  between 
you  and  me,  I  think  that  in  a  few  lessons  I  could  get 
rid  of  that  throatiness,  and  show  her  how  to  get  a  note 
or  two  from  the  chest.' 

'  I'm  sure  you  could,  my  boy;  and  I  shall  be  delighted 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  201 

with  you  if  you  will.  Of  course  we  must  consider  it  as 
a  matter  of  business.' 

'  Oh,  nonsense,  nonsense,  between  pals !'  exclaimed 
Montgomery,  who  saw  a  perspective  of  long  hours 
passed  in  the  society  of  a  pretty  woman — a  luxury 
which  his  long  nose  and  scraggy  figure  prevented  him 
from  indulging  in  as  frequently  as  he  desired. 

After  some  further  discussion,  it  was  arranged  that 
Montgomery  should  call  round  some  time  after  break- 
fast, and  that  Dick  should  then  leave  them  together  to 
work  away  at  do,  re,  mi,  fa.  Hamilton's  system  was 
purchased,  and  it  surprised  and  amused  Kate  to  learn 
that  the  notes  between  the  spaces  spelt  '  face.'  But  it 
was  in  her  singing  lesson  that  she  took  the  most  inter- 
est, and  her  voice  soon  began  to  improve  both  in  power 
and  quality.  She  sang  the  scales  for  three-quarters  of 
an  hour  daily,  and  before  the  end  of  the  week  she  so 
thoroughly  satisfied  Montgomery  in  her  rendering  of  a 
ballad  he  had  bought  for  her  that  he  begged  Dick  to 
ask  a  few  of  the  '  Co  '  in  to  tea  next  Sunday  evening. 
The  shine  would  be  taken  out  of  Beaumont,  he  declared 
with  emphasis.  Kate,  however,  would  not  hear  of  sing- 
ing before  anybody  for  the  present,  and  she  gave  up 
going  to  the  theatre  in  the  evening  so  that  she  might 
have  two  or  three  hours  of  quiet  to  study  music-reading 
by  herself.  In  the  morning  she  woke  to  talk  of  Mont- 
gomery, who  generally  came  in  while  they  were  at 
breakfast;  and  when  the  lesson  was  over  he  would  often 
stop  on  until  they  were  far  advanced  in  the  afternoon; 
and,  looking  at  each  other  from  time  to  time,  they  spoke 
of  the  next  town  they  were  going  to,  and  alluded  to  the 
events  of  their  last  journey.  Kate  would  have  liked  to 
speak  much  of  Dick,  but  she  felt  ashamed,  and  listened 
with  interest  to  all  Montgomery  told  her  of  himself,  of 
the  difficulties  he  had  to  contend  against,  of  his  hopes 


202  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

for  the  future.  He  spoke  a  great  deal  of  his  opera,  and 
often  sprang  up  in  the  middle  of  a  sentence  to  give  a 
practical  illustration  of  his  meaning  on  the  instrument. 
But  these  musical  digressions  did  not  weary  Kate,  and 
to  the  best  of  her  ability  she  judged  the  different  ver- 
sions of  the  finale.  '  Give  the  public  what  they  want/ 
was  his  motto,  and  he  intended  to  act  up  to  it.  He  had 
written  two  or  three  comic  songs  that  had  been  immense 
successes,  not  to  speak  of  the  yards  of  pantomime  music 
he  had  composed,  and  he  knew  that  when  he  got  hold  of 
a  good  book  in  three  acts  he'd  be  able  to  tackle  it. 
What  he  was  doing  now  was  not  much  more  than  a  cur- 
tain-raiser; but  never  mind,  that  was  the  way  to  begin. 
You  couldn't  expect  a  manager  to  trust  you  with  the 
piece  of  the  evening  until  you'd  proved  that  you  could 
interest  the  public  in  smaller  work.  At  this  point  of 
the  argument  Montgomery  generally  spoke  of  Dick, 
whom  he  declared  was  a  dear  good  fellow,  who  would 
be  only  too  glad  to  give  a  pal  a  lift  when  the  time 
came.  Kate,  on  her  side,  longed  to  hear  something  of 
her  lover  from  an  outside  source.  All  she  knew  of  him 
she  had  learned  from  his  own  lips.  Montgomery,  in 
whose  head  all  sorts  of  reveries  concerning  Kate  were 
floating,  was  burning  to  talk  to  her  of  her  lover,  and  to 
hear  from  her  own  lips  of  the  happiness  which  he  imag- 
ined a  true  and  perfect  affection  bestowed  upon  human 
life.  Kate  had  not  spoken  on  this  important  subject; 
and  Montgomery,  for  fear  of  wounding  her  feelings,  had 
avoided  it;  but  they  were  conscious  that  the  restraint 
jarred  their  intimacy.  One  afternoon  Dick  suddenly 
burst  in  upon  them,  and  after  some  preamble  told  them 
that  he  had  arranged  to  meet  there  some  gentleman  with 
whom  he  had  important  business  to  transact.  Montgom- 
ery took  up  his  hat  and  prepared  to  go,  and  Kate  offered 
to  sit  with  the  landlady  in  the  kitchen. 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  203 

'  I'm  afraid  you'll  bore  yourself,  dear/  Dick  said 
after  a  pause.  '  But  I'll  tell  you  what  you  might  do 
— I  shan't  be  able  to  take  you  out  to-day.  Why  not  go 
for  a  walk  with  Montgomery?' 

'  I  shall  be  delighted;  I'll  take  you  for  a  charming 
walk  up  the  hill,  and  show  you  the  whole  town.' 

Kate  had  no  objection  to  make,  and  she  returned  to 
the  sitting-room  sooner  than  they  expected  her.  '  A 
quick-change  artist,'  Dick  said. 

She  wore  a  brown  costume,  trimmed  with  feathers  to 
match;  a  small  bonnet  crowned  the  top  of  her  head, 
and  her  face  looked  adorably  coquettish  amid  the  big 
bows  into  which  she  had  tied  the  strings.  Her  compan- 
ion was  very  conscious  of  this  fact,  and  with  his  heart 
full  of  pride  he  occasionally  jerked  his  head  round  to 
watch  the  passers-by,  doubting  at  the  same  time  if  any 
were  as  happy  as  he. 

It  was  a  great  pleasure  to  be  alone  with  Kate  in  the 
open  air,  walking  by  her  side,  escorting  her,  and  telling 
her  as  they  walked  all  he  knew  about  Blackpool:  that 
it  bore  the  same  relation  to  the  other  towns  of  Lanca- 
shire as  the  seventh  day  does  to  the  other  six  of  the 
week;  that  it  was  the  huge  Lancashire  Sunday,  where 
the  working  classes  of  Accrington,  Blackburn,  Preston, 
and  Burnley,  during  a  week  or  a  fortnight  of  the  year, 
go  to  recreate  themselves. 

'  The  streets  are  built  with  large  pavements,'  he  told 
her,  '  so  that  jostling  may  be  avoided,  and  there  are 
many  open  spaces  where  people  may  loiter  and  congre- 
gate; the  bonnets  exhibited  in  the  plate-glass  windows, 
you  can  see,  are  obviously  intended  for  holiday  wear.' 
She  stopped  to  look  at  these.  '  Not  one,'  he  said,  '  is 
as  pretty  as  the  one  you're  wearing.' 

'  It's    a    pretty    little    hat/  she    answered,    and    he 


204  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

pointed  to  the  spider-legged  piers  and  to  a  high  head- 
land, a  sort  of  green  cap  over  the  ocean. 

'  Do  you  know  that  the  fellow  who  owns  that  building 
has  made  a  fortune?'  said  Montgomery,  pointing  to  the 
roofs  which  began  to  appear  above  the  edge  of  the  com- 
mon. 

'  Did  he  really?'  replied  Kate,  trying  to  appear  in- 
terested. 

'  Yes ;  he  began  with  a  sort  of  shanty  where  he  sold 
ginger-beer  and  lemonade.  It  became  the  fashion  to  go 
out  there,  and  now  he's  got  dining-rooms  and  a  spirit 
license.  We  went  up  there  last  week,  a  lot  of  us,  and 
we  had  such  fun;  we  went  donkey-riding,  and  Leslie 
had  a  fall.  Did  she  tell  you  of  it?' 

'No;  I've  scarcely  spoken  to  her  for  the  last  few 
days.' 

'How's  that?     I  thought  you  were  such  friends.' 

'  I  like  her  very  much;  but  she's  always  on  the  stage 
at  night,  and  I  don't  like — I  mean  I  should  like — but  I 
don't  know  that  she  would  like  me  to  go  and  see  her.' 

'  And  why  not,  pray?' 

'  Well,  I  thought  she  mightn't  like  me  to  come  and 
see  her,  because,  I'm — well,  on  account  of  Dick.' 

'  There's  nothing  between  them  now;  that's  all  over 
ages  ago,  and  she's  dead  nuts  on  Bret.' 

Kate  had  been  nearly  a  fortnight  with  the  mummers, 
but  she  had  lived  almost  apart.  She  had  not  yet  learnt 
that  in  the  company  she  was  in  no  opprobrium  was  at- 
tached to  the  fact  of  a  woman  having  a  lover,  and  she 
still  supposed  that  because  she  had  left  her  husband 
Leslie  might  not  like  to  associate  with  her.  To  learn, 
then,  that  she  had  only  replaced  another  woman  in 
Dick's  affections  came  upon  her  with  a  shock,  and  it 
was  the  very  suddenness  of  the  blow  that  saved  her 
from  half  the  pain;  for  it  was  impossible  for  a  woman 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  205 

who  saw  in  the  world  nothing  but  the  sacrifice  she  had 
made  for  the  man  she  loved,  to  realize  the  fact  that 
Dick's  love  of  her  was  a  toy  that  had  been  taken  up, 
just  as  love  of  Miss  Leslie  was  a  toy  that  had  been  laid 
down.  It  did  not  occur  to  her  to  think  that  the  man  she 
was  living  with  might  desert  her,  nor  did  she  experience 
any  very  cruel  pangs  of  jealousy;  she  was  more  startled 
than  anything  else  by  the  appearance  of  a  third  person 
in  the  world  which  for  the  last  week  had  seemed  so  en- 
tirely her  own. 

'  What  do  you  mean  ?'  she  said,  stopping  abruptly. 
'  Was  Dick  in  love  with  Miss  Leslie  before  he  knew 
me?' 

Montgomery  coloured,  and  strove  to  improvise  ex- 
cuses. 

'  No,'  he  said,  '  of  course  he  wasn't  really  in  love  with 
her;  but  we  used  to  chaff  him  about  her;  that's  all.' 

'  Why  should  you  do  that,  when  she  is  in  love  with 
Bret?'  said  Kate  harshly. 

Montgomery,  who  dreaded  a  quarrel  with  Dick  as  he 
would  death,  grasped  a  bit  of  truth  to  help  him  out  of 
his  difficulty. 

'  But  I  assure  you  Bret  and  Leslie's  affair  only  began 
a  couple  of  months  ago,  when  we  first  went  out  on  tour. 
We  joked  Dick  about  her  to  vex  him,  that's  all.  If  you 
don't  believe  me,  you  can  ask  the  rest  of  the  company.' 

To  this  Kate  made  no  reply,  and  with  her  eyes  upon 
the  ground  she  remained  for  some  moments  thinking. 
The  light  and  the  matter-of-course  way  in  which  her 
companion  spoke  of  the  affections  troubled  her  exceed- 
ingly, and  very  naively  she  asked  herself  if  the  company 
did  not  admit  fornication  among  the  sins. 

'  'Tis  too  bad  to  be  taken  up  in  that  way,'  he  said. 
'  There's  always  a  bit  of  chaff  going  on;  but  if  it  were 
all  taken  for  gospel  truth  I  don't  know  where  we  should 


206  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

be.  I  give  you  my  word  of  honour  that  I  don't  think 
he  ever  looked  twice  at  her;  anyhow,  he  didn't  hesitate 
between  you;  nor  could  he,  for,  of  course,  you  know 
you're  a  fifty  times  prettier  woman/ 

Kate  answered  the  flattery  with  a  delightful  smile, 
and  Montgomery  thought  that  he  had  convinced  her. 
But  the  young  man  was  deceived  by  appearances.  He 
had  succeeded  more  in  turning  the  current  of  her 
thoughts  than  in  persuading  her. 

'  You  seem  to  think  very  lightly  of  such  things,'  she 
said,  raising  her  brown  eyes  with  a  look  that  melted  her 
face  to  a  heavenly  softness. 

Montgomery  did  not  understand,  and  she  was  forced 
to  explain.  This  was  difficult  to  do,  but,  after  a  slight 
hesitation,  she  said: 

'  Then  you  really  do  believe  that  Miss  Leslie  and  Mr. 
Bret  are  lovers?' 

'  Oh,  I  really  don't  know,'  he  said  hastily,  for  he  saw 
himself  drawn  into  a  fresh  complication;  '  I  never  pry 
into  other  people's  affairs.  They  seem  to  like  each 
other,  that's  all.' 

It  was  now  Kate's  turn  to  see  that  indiscreet  questions 
might  lead  to  the  quarrels  she  was  most  anxious  to 
avoid,  and  they  walked  along  the  breezy  common  in 
silence,  seeing  the  sea  below  them,  and  far  away  the 
weedy  waste  of  stone  filled  with  the  white  wings  of 
gulls,  touched  here  and  there  with  the  black  backs  of  the 
shrimp-fishers. 

'  How  strange  it  is  that  the  sea  should  go  and  come 
like  that!  I'd  never  seen  it  as  it  is  now  till  the  day 
before  yesterday,  and  Dick  was  so  amused,  for  I 
thought  it  was  going  to  dry  up.  The  morning  after  our 
arrival  here  we  sat  down  by  the  bathing-boxes  on  the 
beach  and  listened  to  the  waves.  They  roared  along 
the  shore.  It's  very  wonderful.  Don't  you  think  so?  ' 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  207 

'  Yes,  indeed  I  do.  When  I  was  here  before,  I  spent 
one  whole  morning  listening  to  the  waves,  and  their 
surging  suggested  a  waltz  to  me.  This  is  the  way  it 
went/  and  leaning  on  the  rough  paling  that  guarded  the 
precipitous  edge,  Montgomery  sang  his  unpublished 
composition.  '  I  never  got  any  further/  he  said,  stop- 
ping short  in  the  middle  of  the  second  part;  '  I  some- 
how lost  the  character  of  the  thing;  but  I  like  the  open- 
ing/ 

'  Oh,  so  do  I.  I  wonder  how  you  can  think  of  such 
tunes.  How  clever  you  must  be!' 

Montgomery  smiled  nervously,  and  he  proposed  that 
they  should  go  over  to  the  hotel  to  have  a  drink. 

'  Oh,  I  don't  like  to  go  up  there/  she  said,  after  ex- 
amining for  some  moments  this  hillside  bar-room. 
'  There's  too  many  men.' 

'  What  does  it  matter  ?  We'll  have  a  table  to  our- 
selves. Besides,  you'd  better  have  something  to  eat, 
for  now  we're  out  we  may  as  well  stay  out.  There's 
no  use  going  back  yet  awhile';  and  he  talked  so  rapidly 
of  his  waltz — of  whether  he  should  call  it  the  '  Wave/ 
the  '  Seashore/  or  the  'Cliff,'  that  he  didn't  give  her 
time  to  collect  her  thoughts. 

'  I  can't  go  in  there,'  she  said ;  '  why,  it's  only  a  pub- 
lic-house.' 

'  Everybody  comes  up  here  to  have  a  drink.  It's 
quite  the  fashion.' 

The  men  round  the  doorway  stared  at  her,  and  seeing 
some  of  the  chorus-girls  coming  from  where  the  donkeys 
were  stationed,  in  the  company  of  young  men  with  high 
collars  and  tight  trousers,  she  almost  ran  into  the  bar- 
room. 

'  Now  you  see  what  a  scrape  you've  led  me  into.  I 
wouldn't  have  met  those  people  for  anything.' 

'  What  does  it  matter?     If  it  were  wrong,   do  you 


208  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

think  I'd  bring  you  in  here?  You  ask  Dick  when  you 
get  home.' 

A  doubt  of  the  possibility  of  Dick  thinking  anything 
wrong  clouded  Kate's  mind,  and  Montgomery  ordered 
sandwiches  and  two  brandies  and  sodas.  The  sand- 
wiches were  excellent,  and  Kate,  who  had  scarcely 
tasted  anything  but  beer  in  her  life,  thought  the  brandy 
and  soda  very  refreshing.  The  question  then  came  of 
how  to  get  out  of  the  place,  and  after  much  hesitation 
and  conjecturing,  they  slipped  out  the  back  way 
through  the  poultry-yard  and  stables. 

In  front  of  them  was  a  very  steep  path  that  led  to 
the  sea  strand.  Large  masses  of  earth  had  given  way, 
and  these  had  formed  ledges  which,  in  turn,  had  some- 
how become  linked  together,  and  it  was  possible  to 
climb  down  these. 

'  Do  you  think  you  could  manage?'  he  said,  holding 
out  his  hand. 

'  I  don't  know ;  do  you  think  it  dangerous  ?' 

'  No,  not  if  you  take  care;  but  the  cliff  is  pretty  high; 
it  would  not  do  to  fall  over.  Perhaps  you'd  better  come 
back  across  the  common  by  the  road.' 

'  And  meet  all  those  girls  ?' 

'  I  don't  see  why  you  should  be  afraid  of  meeting 
them,'  said  Montgomery,  who  was  secretly  anxious  to 
show  the  chorus  that  if  he  were  not  the  possessor,  he 
was  at  least  on  intimate  terms  of  friendship  with  this 
pretty  woman. 

'  No,  I'd  sooner  not  meet  them,  and  coming  out  of  a 
public-house;  I  don't  see  why  we  shouldn't  come  down 
this  way.  I'm  sure  I  can  manage  it  if  you'll  give  me 
your  hand  and  go  first.' 

The  descent  then  began.  Kate's  high-heeled  boots 
were  hard  to  walk  in,  and  every  now  and  then  her  feet 
would  fail  her,  and  she  would  utter  little  cries  of  fear, 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  209 

and  lean  against  the  cliffs  side.  It  was  delightful  to 
reassure  her,  and  Montgomery  profited  by  those  occa- 
sions to  lay  his  hands  upon  her  shoulders  and  hold  her 
arms  in  his  hands.  No  human  creature  was  in  hearing 
or  in  sight,  and  solitude  seemed  to  unite  them,  and  the 
mimic  danger  of  the  descent  to  endear  them  to  each 
other.  The  quiet  and  enchantment  of  earth  and  air 
melted  into  her  thoughts  until  she  enjoyed  a  perfect 
bliss  of  unreasoned  emotion.  He,  too,  was  conscious  of 
the  day,  and  his  happiness,  touched  with  a  diffused 
sense  of  desire,  was  intense,  even  to  a  savour  of  bitter- 
ness. Like  all  young  men,  he  longed  to  complete  his 
youth  by  some  great  passion,  but  out  of  horror  of  the 
gross  sensualities  with  which  he  was  always  surrounded, 
his  delicate  artistic  nature  took  refuge  in  a  half-platonic 
affection  for  his  friend's  mistress.  It  was  an  infinite 
pleasure,  and  could  it  have  lasted  forever  he  would  not 
have  thought  of  changing  it.  To  take  her  by  the  hand 
and  help  her  to  cross  the  weedy  stones;  to  watch  her 
pretty  stare  of  wonderment  when  he  explained  that  the 
flux  and  the  reflux  of  the  tides  were  governed  by  the 
moon ;  to  hear  her  speak  of  love,  and  to  dream  what  that 
love  might  be,  was  enough. 

Along  the  coast  there  were  miles  and  miles  of 
reaches,  and  to  gain  the  sea  they  were  obliged  to  make 
many  detours.  Sometimes  they  came  upon  long 
stretches  of  sand  separated  by  what  seemed  to  them  to 
be  a  river,  and  Montgomery  often  proposed  that  he 
should  carry  Kate  across  the  streamlet.  But  she  would 
not  hear  of  it,  although  on  one  occasion  she  did  not 
refuse  until  he  had  placed  his  arms  around  her  waist. 
Escaping  from  him,  she  ran  along  the  edge,  saying  she 
would  find  a  crossing.  Montgomery  pursued  her, 
amused  by  the  fluttering  of  her  petticoats ;  but  after  a 
race  of  twenty  or  thirty  yards,  they  found  that  their 


210  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

discovered  river  was  only  a  long  pool  that  owned  no  out- 
let to  the  sea,  and  they  both  stopped  like  disappointed 
children. 

'  Well,  never  mind,'  said  Kate ;  '  did  you  ever  see 
such  beautiful  clear  water?  I  must  have  a  drink.' 

'  You've  no  cup,'  he  said,  turning  away  so  that  she 
should  not  see  him  laughing.  '  You  might  manage  to 
get  up  a  little  in  your  hands.' 

'So  I  might.  Oh,  what  fun!  Tell  me  how  I'm  to 
do  it.' 

He  told  her  how  to  hollow  her  hands,  and  waited  to 
enjoy  the  result,  and,  forgetful  that  the  sea  was  salt 
she  lifted  the  brine  to  her  lips;  but  when  she  spat  out 
the  horrible  mouthful  and  turned  on  him  a  questioning 
face,  he  only  answered  that  if  she  didn't  take  care  she 
would  be  the  death  of  him. 

'  And  didn't  urns  know  the  sea  was  salt,  and  did  urns 
think  it  very  nasty,  and  not  half  as  nice  as  a  brandy- 
and-soda  ?' 

Kate  watched  him  for  a  moment,  and  then  her  face 
clouded,  and  pouting  her  pretty  lips,  she  said: 

'  Of  course  I  don't  pretend  to  be  as  clever  as  you,  but 
if  you'd  never  seen  the  sea  until  a  week  ago  you  might 
forget/ 

'  Yes,  yes,  for-for-get  that  it — it  wasn't  as  nice  as 
brandy-and-soda,'  cried  Montgomery,  holding  his  sides. 

'  I  wasn't  going  to  say  that,  and  it  was  very  rude  of 
you  to  interrupt  me  in  that  way.' 

'  Now  come,  don't  get  cross.  You  should  understand 
a  joke  better  than  that,'  he  replied,  for  seeing  the  tears 
in  her  eyes  he  began  to  fear  that  he  had  spoilt  the  de- 
light of  their  day. 

'  I  think  it  is  unkind  of  you  to  laugh  at  me  and  play 
tricks  on  me  like  that,'  said  Kate,  trying  to  master  her 
emotion;  and  as  they  walked  under  the  sunset,  Mont- 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  211 

• 

gomery  broke  long  and  irritating  silences  by  apologiz- 
ing for  his  indiscretion,  but  Kate  did  not  answer  him 
until  they  arrived  at  a  place  where  a  little  boy  and  girl 
were  fishing  for  shrimps.  Here  there  was  quite  a  little 
lake,  and  amid  the  rocks  and  weedy  stones  the  clear 
water  flowed  as  it  might  in  an  aquarium,  the  liquid  sur- 
face reflecting  as  perfectly  as  any  mirror  the  sky's  blue 
with  clouds  going  by  and  many  delicate  opal  tints,  and 
the  forms  of  the  children's  plump  limbs. 

'  Oh,  how  nice  they  look !  What  little  dears !'  ex- 
claimed Kate,  but  as  she  pressed  forward  to  watch  the 
children  her  foot  dislodged  a  young  lobster  from  the 
corner  of  rock  in  which  he  had  been  hiding. 

'  That's  a  lobster/  cried  Montgomery. 

'  Is  it  ?'  cried  Kate,  and  she  pursued  the  ungainly 
thing,  which  sought  vainly  for  a  crevice. 

After  an  animated  chase,  with  the  aid  of  her  parasol 
she  caught  it,  and  was  about  to  take  it  up  with  her  fin- 
gers when  Montgomery  stopped  her. 

'  You'd  better  take  care ;  it  will  pretty  well  nip  the 
fingers  off  you.' 

'You  aren't  joking?'  she  asked  innocently. 

'  No,  indeed  I'm  not;  but  I  hope  you  don't  mind  my 
telling  you.' 

At  that  moment  their  eyes  met,  and  Kate,  seeing  how 
foolish  she  had  been,  burst  into  fits  of  laughter. 

'  No,  no,  no,  I — I  don't  mind  your  telling  me  that — 
that  a  lobster  bites,  but ' 

'  But  when  it  comes  to  saying  sea-water  is  not  as  nice 
as  brandy-and-soda,'  he  replied,  bursting  into  a  roar  of 
merriment,  '  we  cut  up  rough,  don't  we  ?' 

The  children  climbed  up  on  the  rocks  to  look  at  them, 
and  it  was  some  time  before  Kate  could  find  words  to 
ask  them  to  show  what  they  had  caught. 

The  little  boy  was  especially  clever  at  his  work,  and 


212  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

regardless  of  wetting  himself,  he  plunged  into  the  deep- 
est pools,  intercepting  with  his  net  at  every  turn  the 
shrimps  that  vainly  sought  to  escape  him.  His  little 
sister,  too,  was  not  lacking  in  dexterity,  and  between 
them  they  had  filled  a  fairly-sized  basket.  Kate  exam- 
ined everything  with  an  almost  feverish  interest.  She 
tore  long  gluey  masses  of  seaweed  from  the  rocks  and 
insisted  on  carrying  them  home;  the  mussels  she  found 
on  the  rocks  interested  her;  she  questioned  the  little 
shrimp  fishers  for  several  minutes  about  a  dead  star  fish 
and  they  stared  in  open-eyed  amazement,  thinking  it 
very  strange  that  a  grown-up  woman  should  ask  such 
questions.  At  last  the  little  boy  showed  her  what  she 
was  to  do  with  the  lobster.  He  wedged  the  claws  with 
two  bits  of  wood,  and  attached  a  string  whereby  she 
might  carry  it  in  her  hand,  and  in  silences  that  were 
only  interrupted  by  occasional  words  they  picked  their 
way  along  the  strand. 

Kate  thought  of  Dick — of  what  he  was  doing,  of 
what  he  was  saying.  She  saw  him  surrounded  by  men; 
there  were  glasses  on  the  table.  She  looked  into  his 
large,  melancholy  blue  eyes,  and  dreamed  of  the  time 
she  would  again  sit  on  his  knees  and  explain  to  him  for 
the  hundredth  time  that  love  was  all-sufficing,  and  that 
he  who  possessed  it  could  possess  nothing  more.  Mont- 
gomery was  also  thinking  of  Dick,  and  for  the  conquest 
of  so  pretty  a  woman  the  dreamy-minded  musician 
viewed  his  manager  with  admiration.  The  morality  of 
the  question  did  not  appeal  to  him,  and  his  only  fear 
was  that  Kate  would  one  day  be  deserted.  'If  so,  I 
shall  have  to  support  her.'  He  thought  of  the  music 
he  would  have  to  compose — songs,  all  of  which  would 
be  dedicated  to  her. 

'  Have  you  known  Dick,'  she  asked  suddenly,  '  a  long 
time  ?' 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  213 

'  Two  or  three  years  or  so/  replied  Montgomery,  a 
little  abashed  at  a  question  which  sounded  at  that  mo- 
ment like  a  distant  echo  of  his  own  thoughts.  '  Why  do 
you  ask?' 

'  For  no  particular  reason,  only  you  seem  such  great 
friends.' 

'  Yes,  I  like  him  very  much,  he's  a  dear  good  fellow, 
he'd  divide  his  last  bob  with  a  pal.' 

The  conversation  then  came  to  a  pause.  Both  sud- 
denly remembered  how  they  had  set  out  on  their  walk 
determined  to  seek  information  of  each  other  on  certain 
subj  ects. 

Montgomery  wished  to  hear  from  Kate  how  Dick  had 
persuaded  her  to  run  away  with  him;  Kate  wanted  to 
learn  from  Montgomery  something  of  her  lover's  pri- 
vate life — if  he  were  faithful  to  a  woman  when  he  loved 
her,  if  he  had  been  in  love  with  many  women  before. 

As  she  considered  how  she  would  put  her  question 
a  grey  cloud  passed  over  her  face,  and  she  thought  of 
Leslie.  But  just  as  she  was  going  to  speak  Montgom- 
ery interrupted  her.  He  said: 

'  You  didn't  know  Dick  before  he  came  to  lodge  in 
your  house  at  Hanley,  did  you?' 

Kate  raised  her  eyes  with  a  swift  and  startled  look, 
but  being  anxious  to  speak  on  the  subject  she  replied, 
speaking  very  softly: 

'  No,  and  perhaps  it  would  have  been  well  if  he  had 
never  come  to  my  house.' 

There  was  not  so  much  insincerity  in  the  phrase  as 
may  at  first  appear.  Nearly  all  women  consider  it  nec- 
essary to  maintain  to  themselves  and  to  others  that  they 
deeply  regret  having  sinned.  The  delusion  at  once 
pleases  and  consoles  them,  and  they  cling  to  it  to  the 
last. 

'  I   often   think  of  you,'   said  Montgomery.     '  Yours 


214  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

appears  to  me  such  a  romantic  story  .  .  .  you  who  sat 
all  day  and  mi — mi — '  he  was  going  to  say  minding  a 
sick  husband,  but  for  fear  of  wounding  her  feelings  he 
altered  the  sentence  to  '  and  never,  or  hardly  ever,  left 
Hanley  in  your  life,  should  be  going  about  the  country 
with  us.' 

Kate,  who  guessed  what  he  had  intended  saying,  an- 
swered : 

'  Yes,  I'm  afraid  I've  been  very  wicked.  I  often 
think  of  it  and  you  must  despise  me.  That's  what 
makes  me  ashamed  to  go  about  with  the  rest  of  the  com- 
pany. I'm  always  wondering  what  they  think  of  me. 
Tell  me,  do  tell  me  the  truth,  I  don't  mind  hearing  it. 
What  do  they  say  about  me?  Do  they  abuse  me  very 
much  ?' 

'  Abuse  you  ?  They  abuse  you  for  being  a  pretty 
woman,  I  suppose!  but  as  for  anything  else,  good 
heavens!  they'd  look  well!  Why,  you're  far  the  most 
respectable  one  among  the  lot.  Don't  you  know  that?' 

'  I  suspected  Beaumont  was  not  quite  right,  perhaps; 
but  you  don't  mean  to  say  there  isn't  one?  Not  that 
little  thing  with  fair  hair  who  sings  in  the  chorus?' 

'  Well,  yes,  they  say  she's  all  right.  There  are  one 
or  two,  perhaps;  but  when  it  comes  to  asking  me  if 
Beaumont  and  Leslie  are  down  on  you — well!'  Mont- 
gomery burst  out  laughing. 

This  decided  expression  of  opinion  was  grateful  to 
Kate's  feelings,  and  the  conversation  might  have  been 
pursued  with  advantage,  but  seeing  an  opportunity  of 
speaking  of  Dick,  she  said: 

'  But  you  told  me  there  was  nothing  between  Mr. 
Bret  and  Miss  Leslie.' 

'  I  told  you  I  didn't  know  whether  there  was  or  not; 
but  I'm  quite  sure  there  never  was  between  her  and 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  215 

Dick.  You  see  I  can  guess  what  you're  trying  to  get 
at.' 

'  I  can  scarcely  believe  it.  Now  I  think  of  it,  I  re- 
member she  was  in  his  room  the  night  of  the  row,  when 
he  turned  me  out.' 

'  Yes,  yes ;  but  there  were  a  lot  of  us.  The  princi- 
pals in  a  company  generally  stick  together.  It's  ex- 
traordinary how  you  women  will  keep  on  nagging  at  a 
thing.  I  swear  to  you  that  I'm  as  certain  as  I  stand 
here  there  was  never  anything  between  them.  Do  let 
us  talk  of  something  else.' 

They  had  now  wandered  back  to  the  fine  pebbly 
beach,  to  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  pier,  and  above 
the  high  cliff  they  could  just  see  the  red  chimney-stacks 
of  the  town. 

Montgomery  sang  his  waltz  softly  over,  but  before 
he  arrived  at  the  second  part  his  thoughts  wandered, 
and  he  said: 

'  Have  you  heard  anything  of  your  husband  since  you 
left  Hanley?' 

The  abruptness  of  the  question  made  Kate  start;  but 
she  was  not  offended,  and  she  answered: 

'  No,  I  haven't.     I  wonder  what  he'll  do.' 

'  Possibly  apply  for  a  divorce.  If  he  does,  you'll  be 
able  to  marry  Dick/ 

A  flush  of  pleasure  passed  over  Kate's  face,  and  when 
she  raised  her  eyes  her  look  seemed  to  have  caught  some 
of  the  brightness  of  the  sunset.  But  it  died  into  grey 
gloom  even  as  the  light  above,  and  she  said  sighing: 

'  I  don't  suppose  he'd  marry  me.' 

'  Well,  if  he  wouldn't,  there  are  lots  who  would.' 

'  What  do  you  mean  ?'  asked  Kate  simply. 

'  Oh,  nothing ;  only  I  should  think  that  anyone  would 
be  glad  to  marry  you/  the  young  man  answered,  hoping 
that  she  would  not  repeat  the  conversation  to  her  lover. 
15 


216  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  I  hope  he  will;  for  if  he  were  to  leave  me,  I  think 
I  should  die.  But  tell  me — you  will,  won't  you?  For 
you  are  my  friend,  aren't  you?' 

'  I  hope  so,    he  replied  constrainedly. 

'  Well,  tell  me  the  truth :  do  you  think  he  can  be 
constant  to  a  woman?  Does  he  get  tired  easily?  Does 
he  like  change?' 

Kate  laid  her  hand  on  Montgomery's  shoulder,  and 
looked  pleadingly  in  his  face. 

'  Dick  is  an  awful  good  fellow,  and  I'm  sure  he 
couldn't  but  behave  well  to  anyone  he  liked — not  to  say 
loved;  and  I  know  that  he  never  cared  for  anybody  as 
he  does  for  you;  he  as  much  as  told  me.' 

Kate's  smile  was  expressive  of  pleasure  and  weari- 
ness, and  after  a  pause,  she  said: 

'  I  hope  what  you  say  is  true ;  but  I  don't  think  men 
ever  love  as  women  do.  When  we  give  our  heart  to  one 
man,  we  cannot  love  another.  I  don't  know  why,  but 
I  don't  believe  that  a  man  could  be  quite  faithful  to  a 
woman.' 

'  That's  all  nonsense.  I'm  sure  that  if  I  loved  a 
woman  it  wouldn't  occur  to  me  to  think  of  another.' 

'  Perhaps  you  might,'  she  answered ;  and,  uncon- 
sciously comparing  them  with  Dick's  jovial  features, 
she  examined  intently  the  enormous  nose  and  the  hol- 
low, sunken  cheeks.  Montgomery  wondered  what  she 
was  thinking  of,  and  he  half  guessed  that  she  was  con- 
sidering if  it  were  possible  that  any  woman  could  care 
for  him.  To  die  without  ever  having  been  able  to  in- 
spire an  affection  was  a  fear  that  was  habitual  to  him, 
and  often  at  night  he  lay  awake,  racked  by  the  thought 
that  his  ugliness  would  ever  debar  him  from  attaining 
this  dearly  desired  end. 

'  Were  you  ever  in  love  with  anybody  ?'  she  asked, 
after  a  long  silence. 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  £17 

'  Yes,  once/ 

'  And  did  she  care  for  you  ?' 

'  Yes,  I  think  she  did  at  first.  We  used  to  meet  at 
dinner  every  day;  but  then  she  fell  in  love  with  an  acro- 
bat— I  suppose  you  would  call  him  an  acrobat — I  mean 
one  of  those  gutta-percha  men  who  tie  their  legs  in  a 
knot  over  their  heads.  The  child  was  deformed.  I  was 
awfully  cut  up  about  it  at  the  time,  but  it's  all  over 
now.' 

The  conversation  then  came  to  a  pause.  Kate  did  not 
like  to  ask  any  further  questions,  but  as  she  stared 
vaguely  at  the  pale  sun  setting,  she  wondered  what  the 
acrobat  was  like,  and  how  a  girl  could  prefer  a  gutta- 
percha  man  to  the  musician.  As  the  minutes  passed, 
the  silence  grew  more  irritating,  and  the  evening  colder. 

'  I'm  afraid  we  shall  catch  a  chill  if  we  remain  here 
much  longer,'  said  Montgomery,  who  had  again  begun 
to  sing  his  waltz  over. 

'  Yes,  I  think  we'd  better  be  getting  home,'  Kate  an- 
swered dreamily. 

After  some  searching,  they  found  a  huge  stairway, 
cut  for  the  use  of  bathers  in  the  side  of  the  cliff,  and 
up  this  feet-torturing  path  Montgomery  helped  Kate 
carefully  and  lovingly. 


XIV 

FROM  Blackpool  Morton  and  Cox's  Opera  Company  pro- 
ceeded to  Southport,  and,  still  going  northward,  they 
visited  Newcastle,  Durham,  Dundee,  Glasgow,  and 
Edinburgh.  But  in  no  one  town  did  they  remain  more 
than  a  week.  Every  Sunday  morning,  regardless  as 
swallows  of  chiming  church-bells,  they  met  at  the  station 
and  were  whirled  as  fast  as  steam  could  take  them  to 
new  streets,  lodging-houses,  and  theatres.  To  Kate  this 
constant  change  was  at  once  wearying  and  perplexing, 
and  she  often  feared  that  she  would  never  become  accus- 
tomed to  her  new  mode  of  life.  But  on  the  principle 
that  we  can  scarcely  be  said  to  be  moving  when  all 
around  is  moving  in  a  like  proportion,  Kate  learned  to 
regard  locality  as  a  mere  nothing,  and  to  fix  her  centre 
of  gravity  in  the  forty  human  beings  who  were  wander- 
ing with  her,  bound  to  her  by  the  light  ties  of  opera 
bouffe. 

Wherever  she  went  her  life  remained  the  same.  She 
saw  the  same  faces,  heard  the  same  words.  Were  they 
likely  to  do  good  business,  was  debated  when  they 
alighted  from  the  train;  that  they  had  or  had  not  done 
good  business  was  affirmed  when  they  j  umped  into  the 
train.  Soon  even  the  change  of  apartments  ceased  to 
astonish  her,  and  she  saw  nothing  surprising  in  the  fact 
that  her  chest  of  drawers  was  one  week  on  the  right  and 

218 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  219 

the  following  on  the  left-hand  side  of  her  bed.  Nor 
did  she  notice  after  two  or  three  months  of  travelling 
whether  wax  flowers  did  or  did  not  decorate  the  corners 
of  her  sitting-room,  and  it  seemed  to  her  of  no  moment 
whether  the  Venetian  blinds  were  green  or  brown.  The 
dinners  she  ate  were  as  good  in  one  place  as  in  another; 
the  family  resemblance  which  slaveys  bear  to  each  other 
satisfied  her  eyes,  and  the  difference  of  latitude  and 
longitude  between  Glasgow  and  Aberdeen  she  found  did 
not  in  the  least  alter  her  daily  occupations. 

Montgomery  came  to  see  her  every  morning,  and  the 
tunefulness  of  the  piano  was  really  all  that  reminded 
them  of  their  change  of  residence.  From  twelve  until 
three  they  worked  at  music,  both  vocal  and  instrumen- 
tal. Dick  sought  for  excuses  to  absent  himself,  but 
when  he  returned  he  always  insisted  that  Montgomery 
should  remain  to  dinner.  All  formalities  between  them 
were  abolished,  and  Kate  did  not  hesitate  to  sit  on  her 
lover's  knees  in  the  presence  of  her  music-master.  But 
he  did  not  seem  to  care,  he  only  laughed  a  little  nerv- 
ously. Kate  sometimes  wondered  if  he  really  disliked 
witnessing  such  familiarities.  In  her  heart  of  hearts 
she  was  conscious  that  there  were  affinities  of  sentiment 
between  them,  and  during  the  music  lessons  they  talked 
continually  of  love.  The  sight  of  Montgomery's  lanky 
face  often  interrupted  an  emotional  mood,  but  she  re- 
covered it  again  when  he  sat  looking  at  her,  talking  to 
her  of  his  music.  In  this  way  he  became  a  necessity  to 
her  existence,  a  sort  of  spiritual  light.  They  never 
wearied  of  talking  about  Dick;  between  them  it  was 
always  Dick,  Dick,  Dick !  He  told  her  anecdotes  con- 
cerning him — how  he  had  acted  certain  parts;  how  he 
had  stage-managed  certain  pieces;  of  supper  parties;  of 
adventures  they  had  been  engaged  in.  These  stories 
amused  Kate,  although  the  odour  of  woman  in  which 


220  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

they  were  bathed,  as  in  an  atmosphere,  annoyed  and 
troubled  her.  As  if  to  repay  him  for  his  kindness,  she 
became  confidential,  and  one  day  she  told  him  the  story 
of  her  life. 

It  would,  she  said,  were  it  taken  down,  make  the  most 
wonderful  story-book  ever  written;  and  beginning  at 
the  beginning,  she  gave  rapidly  an  account  of  her  child- 
hood, accentuating  the  religious  and  severe  manner  in 
which  she  had  been  brought  up,  until  the  time  she  and 
her  mother  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Edes.  There 
it  was  necessary  to  hesitate.  She  did  not  wish  to  tell 
an  absolute  lie,  but  was  yet  desirous  to  convey  the  im- 
pression that  her  marriage  with  Mr.  Ede  had  been  forced 
upon  her;  but  Montgomery  had  already  accepted  it  as  a 
foregone  conclusion.  With  his  fingers  twisted  through 
his  hair,  and  his  head  thrust  forward  in  the  position  in 
which  we  are  accustomed  to  see  composers  seeking  in- 
spiration depicted,  he  listened,  passionately  interested. 
And  when  it  came  to  telling  of  the  mental  struggle  she 
had  gone  through  when  struggling  between  her  love  for 
Dick  and  her  duty  towards  her  husband,  Montgomery's 
face,  under  the  influence  of  many  emotions,  straightened 
and  contracted.  He  asked  a  hundred  questions,  and  was 
anxious  to  know  what  she  had  thought  of  Dick  when  she 
saw  him  for  the  first  time.  She  told  him  all  she  could 
remember.  Her  account  of  the  visit  to  the  Potteries 
proved  very  amusing,  but  before  she  told  him  of  their 
fall  amid  the  cups  and  saucers  she  made  Montgomery 
swear  he  would  never  breathe  a  word. 

'  Oh,  the  devil !  Was  that  the  way  he  cut  his  legs  ? 
He  told  us  that  he  had  forgotten  his  latchkey,  and  that 
he  had  done  it  in  getting  over  the  garden-wall/ 

Running  his  hand  over  the  piano,  Montgomery 
begged  of  Kate  to  continue  her  story;  but  as  she  pro- 
ceeded with  the  analysis  of  her  passion  the  events  be- 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  221 

came  more  and  more  difficult  to  narrate;  and  she  knew 
not  how  to  tell  the  tale  how  one  dark  night  her  husband 
sent  her  down  to  open  the  door  to  Dick;  but  she  must 
tell  everything  so  that  the  whole  of  the  blame  should 
not  fall  upon  him.  She  alluded  vaguely  to  violence  and 
to  force;  Montgomery's  face  darkened  and  he  protested 
against  his  friend's  conduct. 

To  Kate  it  was  consoling  to  meet  someone  who 
thought  she  was  not  entirely  to  blame,  and  the  conver- 
sation came  to  a  pause. 

'  And  now  I'm  going  about  the  country  with  you  all, 
and  am  thinking  of  going  on  the  stage.' 

'  And  will  be  a  success,  too — that  I'll  bet  my  life.' 

'  Do  you  really  think  so?  Do  tell  me  the  real  truth; 
do  you  think  I  shall  ever  be  able  to  sing?' 

'  I'm  sure  of  it.' 

'  Well,  I'm  glad  to  hear  you  say  so,  for  it's  now  more 
necessary  than  ever.' 

'  How  do  you  mean  ?  Has  anything  fresh  happened  ? 
You're  not  on  bad  terms  with  Dick,  are  you?  Tell  me.' 

'  Oh,  not  the  least !  Dick  is  very  good  to  me ;  but  if  I 
tell  you  something  you  promise  not  to  mention  it?' 

'  I  promise.' 

'  Well,  we  were — I  don't  know  what  you  call  it — 
summoned,  I  think — by  a  man  before  we  left  Blackpool 
to  appear  in  the  Divorce  Court.' 

For  nearly  half  a  minute  they  looked  at  each  other  in 
silence;  then  Montgomery  said: 

'  I  suppose  it  was  after  all  about  the  best  thing  that 
could  happen.' 

This  answer  surprised  Kate.  '  Why/  she  said,  '  do 
you  think  it's  the  best  thing  that  could  happen  to  me?' 

'  Because  when  you  get  your  divorce,  if  you  play  your 
cards  well,  you'll  be  able  to  get  Dick  to  marry  you.' 

Kate  made  no  reply,  and   for  some  time  both  con- 


222  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

sidered  the  question  in  silence.  She  wondered  if  Dick 
loved  her  sufficiently  to  make  such  a  sacrifice  for  her: 
Montgomery  reflected  on  the  best  means  of  persuading 
his  friend  '  to  do  right  by  the  woman.'  At  last  he  said : 

'  But  what  did  you  mean  just  now  when  you  said  that 
It  was  more  necessary  than  ever  that  you  should  go  on 
the  stage?' 

'  I  don't  know,  only  that  if  I'm  going  to  be  divorced 
I  suppose  I'd  better  see  what  I  can  do  to  get  my  living.' 

'  Well,  it  isn't  my  fault  if  you  aren't  on  the  stage 
already.  I've  been  trying  to  induce  you  to  make  up 
your  mind  for  the  last  month  past.' 

'  Oh,  the  chorus !  that  horrid  chorus !  I  never  could 
walk  about  before  a  whole  theatre  full  of  people  in  those 
red  tights.' 

'  There's  nothing  indecent  in  wearing  tights.  Our 
leading  actresses  play  in  travestie.  In  Faust  Trebelli 
Bettini  wears  tights,  and  I'm  sure  no  one  can  say  any- 
thing against  her.' 

Tights  were  a  constant  subject  of  discussion  between 
the  three,  friend,  mistress  and  lover.  All  sorts  of  argu- 
ments had  been  adduced,  but  none  of  them  had  shaken 
Kate's  unreasoned  convictions  on  this  point.  A  sense  of 
modesty  inherited  through  generations  rose  to  her  head, 
and  a  feeling  of  repugnance  that  seemed  almost  in- 
vincible, forbade  her  to  bare  herself  thus  to  the  eyes 
of  a  gazing  public.  But  although  inborn  tendencies  can- 
not be  eradicated,  the  will  that  sustains  them  can  be 
broken  by  force  of  circumstances,  and  her  resolutions 
began  to  fail  her  when  Dick  declared  that  the  thirty 
shillings  a  week  she  would  thus  earn  would  be  a  real 
assistance  to  them. 

In  reality  the  manager  had  no  immediate  need  of  the 
money,  but  it  went  against  his  feelings  to  allow  princi- 
ples, and  above  all  principles  he  could  not  but  think 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  223 

absurd,  to  stand  in  the  way  of  his  turning  over  a  bit  of 
coin.  '  Besides,'  he  said,  '  how  can  I  put  you  into  a 
leading  business  all  at  once?  No  matter  how  well  you 
knew  your  words,  you'd  dry  up  when  you  got  before 
the  footlights.  You  must  get  over  your  stage  fright  in 
the  chorus.  On  the  first  occasion  I'll  give  you  a  line  to 
speak,  then  two  or  three,  and  then  when  you've  learnt  to 
blurt  them  out  without  hesitation,  we'll  see  about  a  part.' 

These  and  similar  phrases  were  dinned  into  her  ears, 
until  at  last  the  matter  got  somehow  decided,  and  the 
London  costumier  was  telegraphed  to  for  a  new  dress. 
When  it  arrived  a  few  days  after,  the  opening  of  the 
package  caused  a  good  deal  of  merriment.  Dick  held 
up  the  long  red  stockings,  as  Kate  called  the  tights, 
before  Montgomery.  It  was  too  late  now  to  retract. 
The  dress  looked  beautiful,  and  tempted  on  all  sides, 
she  consented  to  appear  that  night  in  Les  Cloches.  So 
at  half -past  six  she  walked  down  to  the  theatre  with  her 
bundle  under  her  arm.  Dick  had  not  allotted  to  her  a 
dressing-room,  and  to  avoid  Miss  Beaumont,  who  was 
always  rude,  she  went  of  her  own  accord  up  to  number 
six.  An  old  woman  opened  the  door  to  her,  and  when 
Kate  had  explained  what  she  had  come  for,  she  said: 

*  Very  well,  ma'am.  I'm  sure  I  don't  mind;  but  we're 
already  eight  in  this  room,  and  have  only  one  basin  and 
looking-glass  between  the  lot.  I'm  afraid  you  won't  be 
very  comfortable.' 

'  Oh !  that  won't  matter.  It  may  be  only  for  to-night. 
If  I'm  too  much  in  the  way  I'll  ask  Mr.  Lennox  to  put 
me  somewhere  else.' 

On  that  Kate  entered.  It  was  a  long,  narrow,  white- 
washed room,  smelling  strongly  of  violet-powder  and 
clothes.  Nobody  had  arrived  yet,  and  the  dresses  lay 
spread  out  on  chairs  awaiting  the  wearers.  One  was  a 
peasant-girl's  dress — a  short  calico  skirt  trimmed  with 


224  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

wreaths  of  wild  flowers,  and  she  regretted  that  she  could 
not  exchange  the  page's  attire  for  one  of  these. 

'  And  as  regards  the  tights/  added  the  old  woman, 
'  you'd  have  to  wear  them  j  ust  the  same  with  peasant- 
girls'  frocks  as  with  these  trunks,  for,  as  you  can  see, 
the  skirts  only  just  come  below  the  knees.' 

At  this  moment  the  conversation  was  interrupted  by 
the  clattering  of  feet  on  the  rickety  staircase  and  two 
girls  entered  talking  loudly;  Kate  had  often  spoken  to 
them  in  the  wings.  Then  some  more  women  arrived,  and 
Kate  withdrew  her  chair  as  far  out  of  reach  as  possible 
of  the  flying  petticoats  and  the  scattered  boots  and  shoes. 
One  lady  could  not  find  her  tights,  another  insisted  on 
the  bodice  of  her  dress  being  laced  up  at  once;  three 
voices  shouted  at  once  for  the  dresser,  and  the  call  boy 
was  heard  outside: 

'Ladies!  ladies!  Mr.  Lennox  is  waiting;  the  curtain 
is  going  up.' 

'  All  right !  all  right ! '  cried  an  octave  of  treble 
voices,  and  tripping  over  their  swords,  those  who  were 
ready  hurried  downstairs,  leaving  the  others  screaming 
at  the  dresser,  who  was  vainly  attempting  to  tidy  the 
room. 

When  Kate  got  on  the  stage  the  first  person  she  saw 
was  Montgomery,  the  very  one  she  wished  most  to 
avoid.  After  having  conducted  the  overture  he  had 
come  up  to  find  out  the  reason  of  the  '  wait.'  Dick 
was  rushing  about,  declaring  that  if  this  ever  occurred 
again  half-a-crown  would  be  stopped  out  of  all  the  sal- 
aries. 

'  Oh !  how  very  nice  we  look !  and  they're  not  thin/ 
exclaimed  Montgomery,  pushing  his  glasses  up  on  his 
nose.  And  forgetting  his  difficulties  as  if  by  magic, 
Dick  smiled  with  delight  as,  holding  her  at  arm's  length, 
he  looked  at  her  critically. 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  225 

'  Charming,  my  dear !  There  won't  be  a  man  in  front 
who  won't  fall  in  love  with  you.  But  I  must  see  where 
I  can  place  you.' 

All  the  rest  passed  as  rapidly  as  in  a  dream,  and 
before  she  could  again  think  distinctly  she  was  walking 
round  the  stage  in  the  company  of  a  score  of  other 
girls.  Treading  in  time  to  the  music,  they  formed  them- 
selves into  lines,  making  place  for  Leslie,  who  came 
running  down  to  the  footlights.  There  was  no  time  for 
thinking;  she  was  whirled  along.  Between  the  acts  she 
had  to  rush  upstairs  to  put  on  another  dress;  between 
the  scenes  she  had  to  watch  to  know  when  she  had  to 
go  on.  Sometimes  Dick  spoke  to  her,  but  he  was  gen- 
erally far  away,  and  it  was  not  until  the  curtain  had 
been  rung  down  for  the  last  time  that  she  got  an  oppor- 
tunity of  speaking  to  him. 

As  they  walked  home  up  the  dark  street  when  all  was 
over,  she  laid  her  hand  affectionately  on  his  arm: 

'  Tell  me,  Dick,  are  you  satisfied  with  me?  I've  done 
my  best  to  please  you.' 

'  Satisfied  with  you?  '  replied  the  big  man,  turning 
towards  her  in  his  kind  unctuous  way,  '  I  should  think 
so:  you  looked  lovely,  and  your  voice  was  heard  above 
everybody's.  I  wish  you'd  heard  what  Montgomery  said. 
I'll  give  you  a  line  to  speak  when  you've  got  a  bit  of 
confidence.  You're  a  bit  timid,  that's  all.'  And  delighted 
Kate  listened  to  Dick  who  had  begun  to  sketch  out 
a  career  for  her.  Her  voice,  he  said,  would  improve. 
She'd  have  twice  the  voice  in  a  year  from  now,  and  with 
twice  the  voice  she'd  not  only  be  able  to  sing  Clairette 
in  Madame  Angot,  but  all  Schneider's  great  parts. 

He  talked  on  and  on,  and  in  the  early  hours  of  the 
morning  he  was  relating  how  The  Brigands  had  failed 
at  the  Globe,  the  conditions  of  his  capitalist  being  that 
his  mistress  was  to  play  one  of  the  leading  parts  at  a 


226  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

high  salary,  and  that  he  was  to  take  over  the  bars.  That 
was  thirty  pounds  a  week  gone;  and  the  woman  sang  so 
fearfully  out  of  tune  that  she  was  hissed,  a  pity,  for 
the  piece  contained  some  of  Offenbach's  best  music.  A 
casual  reference  to  the  dresses  led  up  to  a  detailed 
account  of  how  he  had  bought  the  satin  down  at  the 
Docks  at  the  extraordinary  low  price  of  two  shillings 
a  yard,  and  this  bargain  prepared  the  way  for  a  long 
story  concerning  a  girl  who  had  worn  one  of  these 
identical  dresses.  She  was  now  a  leading  London  ac- 
tress, and  every  step  of  her  upward  career  was  gone 

into.     Then  followed  several  biographies.     Charlie  

sang  in  the  chorus  and  was  now  a  leading  tenor.     Miss 

had  married  a  rich  man  on  the  Stock  Exchange; 

and  so  on.  Indeed,  everybody  in  that  ill-fated  piece 
seemed  to  have  succeeded  except  the  manager  himself. 
But  no  such  criticism  occurred  to  Kate.  Her  heart 
was  swollen  with  admiration  for  the  man  who  had  been 
once  at  the  head  of  all  this  talent,  and  the  rich-coloured 
future  he  would  shape  for  her  flowed  hazily  through  her 
mind. 

And  Kate  grew  happier  as  the  days  passed  until  she 
began  to  think  she  must  be  the  happiest  woman  living. 
Her  life  had  now  an  occupation,  and  no  hour  that  went 
pressed  upon  her  heavier  than  would  a  butterfly's  wing. 
The  mornings  when  Dick  was  with  her  had  always  been 
delightful;  and  the  afternoons  had  been  taken  up  with 
her  musical  studies.  It  was  the  long  evenings  she  used 
to  dread;  now  they  had  become  part  and  parcel  of  her 
daily  pleasures.  They  dined  about  four,  and  when  din- 
ner was  over  it  was  time  to  talk  about  what  kind  of  house 
they  were  going  to  have,  to  fidget  about  in  search  of 
brushes  and  combs,  the  curling-tongs,  and  to  consider 
what  little  necessaries  she  had  better  bring  down  to  the 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  227 

theatre  with  her.  At  first  it  seemed  very  strange  to  her 
to  go  tripping  down  these  narrow  streets  at  a  certain 
hour — streets  that  were  filled  with  people,  for  the  stage 
and  the  pit  entrance  are  always  within  a  few  yards  of 
each  other,  and  to  hear  the  passers-by  whisper  as  she 
went  by,  '  She's  one  of  the  actresses.'  One  day  she 
found  a  letter  addressed  to  her  under  the  name  chosen 
by  Dick — a  picturesque  name  he  thought  looked  well 
on  posters — and  not  suspecting  what  was  in  it,  she  tore 
open  the  envelope  in  presence  of  half-a-dozen  chorus 
girls,  who  had  collected  in  the  passage.  A  diamond  ring 
fell  on  the  floor,  and  in  astonishment  Kate  read: 

'  DEAR  Miss  D'ARCY, — In  recognition  of  your 
beauty  and  the  graceful  way  in  which  you  .play  your 
part,  I  beg  to  enclose  you  a  ring,  which  I  hope  to  see 
on  your  finger  to-night.  If  you  wear  it  on  the  right 
hand  I  shall  understand  that  you  will  allow  me  to  wait 
for  you  at  the  stage  door.  If,  however,  you  decide  that 
my  little  offering  suits  better  your  left  hand,  I  shall 
understand  that  I  am  unfortunate. 

'  (Signed)     AN  ADMIRER.' 

'  Who  left  this  here  ?  '  asked  Kate  of  the  door-keeper. 

'  A  tall  young  gent — a  London  man  I  should  think 
by  the  cut  of  him,  but  he  left  no  name.' 

'  A  very  pretty  ring,  anyhow,'  said  a  girl,  picking  it 
up. 

'  Not  bad/  said  another,  '  I  got  one  like  it  last  year 
at  Sheffield.' 

'  But  what  shall  I  do  with  it? '  asked  Kate. 

'  Why,  wear  it,  of  course/  answered  two  or  three 
voices  simultaneously. 

'  Wear  it ! '  she  repeated,  and  feeling  very  much  like 
one  in  possession  of  stolen  goods,  she  hurried  on  to  the 


228  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

stage,  intending  to  ask  Dick  what  she  was  to  do  with  the 
ring.  She  found  him  disputing  with  the  property  man, 
and  it  was  some  time  before  he  could  bring  himself  to 
forget  the  annoyance  that  a  scarcity  of  daggers  had  oc- 
casioned him.  At  last,  however,  with  a  violent  effort 
of  will,  he  took  the  note  from  her  hand  and  read  it 
through.  When  he  had  mastered  the  contents  a  good- 
natured  smile  illumined  his  chub-cheeked  face,  and  he 
said: 

'  Well,  what  do  you  want  to  say  ?  I  think  the  ring 
a  very  nice  one;  let's  see  how  it  looks  on  your  hand?  ' 

'You  don't  mean  that  I'm  to  wear  it?' 

'  And  why  not  ?  I  think  it's  a  very  nice  ring/  the  man- 
ager said  unaffectedly.  '  Wear  it  first  on  one  hand  and 
then  on  the  other,  dear;  that  will  puzzle  him.' 

'  But  supposing  he  comes  to  meet  me  at  the  stage 
door?' 

'  Well,  what  will  that  matter  ?  We'll  go  out  together ; 
I'll  see  that  he  keeps  his  distance.  But  now  run  up  and 
get  dressed.' 

'  Now  then,  come  in,'  cried  Dolly,  who  was  walking 
about  in  a  pair  of  blue  stockings.  '  You're  as  bashful 
as  an  undergraduate.' 

A  roar  of  laughter  greeted  this  sally,  and  feeling  hu- 
miliated, she  began  to  dress. 

'  You  haven't  heard  Dolly's  story  of  the  undergrad- 
uate ?  '  shouted  a  girl  from  the  other  end  of  the  room. 

'  No,  and  don't  want  to/  replied  Kate,  indignantly. 
'  The  conversation  in  this  room  is  perfectly  horrid.  I 
shall  ask  Mr.  Lennox  to  change  me.  And  really,  Miss 
Goddard,  I  think  you  might  manage  to  dress  yourself 
with  a  little  more  decency.' 

'  Well,  if  you  call  this  dress,"  exclaimed  Dolly,  fan- 
ning herself.  '  I  suppose  one  must  take  off  one's  stock- 
ing to  please  you.  You're  as  bad  as ' 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE 


Dolly  was  the  wit  of  No.  6  dressing-room,  and  hav- 
ing obtained  her  laugh  she  sought  to  conciliate  Kate.  To 
achieve  this  she  began  by  putting  on  her  tights. 

'Now,  Mrs.  Lennox/  she  said,  'don't  be  angry;  if 
I've  a  good  figure  I  can't  help  it.  And  I  do  want  to  hear 
about  the  diamond  ring.' 

This  was  said  so  quaintly,  so  cunningly,  as  the  Ameri- 
cans would  say,  that  Kate  couldn't  help  smiling,  and 
abandoning  her  hand  she  allowed  Dolly  to  examine  the 
ring. 

'  I  never  saw  anything  prettier  in  my  life.  It  wasn't 
an  undergrad  —  ?  '  said  the  girl,  who  was  a  low  comedian 
at  heart  and  knew  the  value  of  repetition.  '  I  must  drink 
to  his  health.  Who  has  any  liquor?  Have  you,  Vin- 
cent? ' 

'  Just  a  drain  left,'  said  a  fat  girl,  pulling  a  flat  bot- 
tle out  of  a  dirty  black  skirt,  '  but  I'm  going  to  keep  it 
for  the  end  of  the  second  act.' 

'  Selfishness  will  be  your  ruin,'  said  Dolly.  '  Let's 
subscribe  to  drink  the  gentleman's  health/  she  added, 
winking  at  the  bevy  of  damsels  who  stood  waiting,  their 
hands  on  their  hips.  And  it  being  impossible  for  Kate 
to  misunderstand  what  was  expected  of  her  she  said: 

'  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  stand  treat.  What  shall  it 
be?' 

After  some  discussion  it  was  agreed  that  they  could 
not  do  better  than  a  bottle  of  whiskey.  The  decrepit 
dresser  was  given  the  money,  with  strict  injunctions 
from  Dolly  not  to  uncork  the  bottle.  '  We  can  do  that 
ourselves,'  the  girl  added,  facetiously;  and  a  noisy  in- 
terest was  manifested  in  the  ring,  the  sender  and  the 
letter.  Kate  said  that  Dick  had  advised  her  to  wear  the 
ring  first  on  one  hand  and  then  on  the  other. 

'  To   keep    changing   it   from   one   hand  to   another/ 


230  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

cried  Dolly;  'not  a  bad  idea;  and  now  to  the  health 
and  success  of  the  sender  of  the  ring.' 

'  I  cannot  drink  to  that  toast,'  Kate  answered,  laying 
aside  her  glass. 

'  That  the  word  "  success  "  be  omitted  from  the  toast/ 
cried  Dolly,  and  the  merriment  did  not  cease  until  the 
call-boy  was  heard  crying,  '  Ladies,  ladies !  Mr.  Len- 
nox is  waiting  on  the  stage.'  Then  there  was  a  scramble 
for  the  glass  and  the  dresser,  and  Dolly's  voice  was 
heard  screaming: 

'  Now  then,  Mother  Hubbard,  have  you  the  sweet- 
stuff  I  told  you  to  get?  I  don't  want  to  go  downstairs 
stinking  of  raw  spirit.' 

'  I  couldn't  get  any,'  said  the  old  woman,  '  but  I 
brought  two  slices  of  bread;  that'll  do  as  well/ 

'  You're  a  knowing  old  card,'  said  Dolly.  '  Eat  a 
mouthful  or  two,  it'll  take  the  smell  off,  Mrs.  Lennox/ 
and  the  girls  rattled  down  the  staircase,  arriving  on 
the  stage  only  just  in  time  for  their  cue. 

'  Cue  for  soldier's  entrance,'  the  prompter  cried,  and 
on  they  went,  Montgomery  taking  the  music  a  little 
quicker  than  usual  till  Kate,  who  was  now  in  the  big 
eight,  clean  forgot  how  often  she  had  changed  her  ring 
from  the  left  hand  to  the  right.  But  she  did  wear  it 
on  different  hands,  and  no  admirer  came  up  and  spoke 
to  her  at  the  stage  door.  Dick  was  there  waiting  for 
her;  she  felt  quite  safe  on  his  arm,  and  as  soon  as  they 
had  had  a  mouthful  of  supper  they  began  the  weekly 
packing. 

Next  morning  it  was  train  and  station,  station  and 
train,  but  despite  many  delays  they  managed  to  catch 
the  train,  and  on  Monday  night  her  gracefulness  was 
winning  for  her  new  admirers:  in  every  town  the  com- 
pany visited  she  received  letters  and  presents;  none  sue- 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  231 

ceeded,  however,  in  weakening  her  love,  or  persuading 
her  from  Dick. 

'  Yet  lovers  around  here  are  sighing/  Montgomery 
chuckled,  and  Dick  began  to  consider  seriously  the 
means  to  be  adopted  to  secure  Kate's  advancement  in 
her  new  profession.  One  night  Montgomery  returned 
home  with  them  after  the  performance,  bringing  with 
him  the  script,  and  till  one  in  the  morning  the  twain  sat 
together  trying  to  devise  some  extra  lines  for  the  first 
scene  in  Les  Cloches. 

'  The  scene,'  Dick  said,  '  is  on  the  seashore.  The 
girls  are  on  their  way  to  market.' 

'  Supposing  she  said  something  like  this,  eh?  "  Mr. 
Baillie,  do  you  like  brown  eyes  and  cherry  lips  ? " 
And  then  another  would  reply,  "  Cherry  brandy  most 
like." ' 

'  No,  I  don't  think  the  public  would  see  the  point, 
you  must  remember  we're  not  playing  to  a  London 
public.  I  think  we'd  better  have  something  broader.' 

'Well,  what?' 

'  You  remember  the  scene  in  Chilperic  when ' 

The  conversation  wandered;  and  Mr.  Diprose's  ver- 
sion of  the  opera  and  his  usual  vile  taste  in  the  stage 
management  was  severely  commented  on.  In  such  pleas- 
ant discussion  an  hour  was  agreeably  spent;  but  at  last 
the  sudden  extinguishing  of  a  cigarette  reminded  them 
that  they  had  met  for  the  purpose  of  writing  some 
dialogue.  After  a  long  silence  Dick  said: 

'  Supposing  she  were  to  say,  "  Mr.  Baillie,  you've  a 
fine  head."  You  know  I  want  something  she'd  get  a 
laugh  with.' 

'  If  she  said  the  truth,  she'd  say  a  fat  head,'  replied 
Montgomery  with  a  laugh. 

'And  why  shouldn't  she?  That's  the  very  thing. 
She's  sure  to  get  a  laugh  with  that — "  Mr.  Baillie,  you 
16 


232  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

have  a  fat  head."  Let's  get  that  down  first.  But  what 
shall  she  say  after?  And  in  silence  they  ransacked  their 
memories  for  a  joke  which  could  be  fitted  to  the  one  they 
had  just  discovered. 

After  some  five  minutes  of  deep  consideration,  and 
wearied  by  the  unaccustomed  mental  strain  put  upon 
his  mind,  Dick  said: 

'Do  you  know  the  music  of  Trone  D'Ecosse?  Dev- 
ilish good.  If  the  book  had  been  better  it  would  have 
been  a  big  success.' 

'  The  waltz  is  about  the  prettiest  thing  Herve  has 
done.' 

This  expression  of  opinion  led  up  to  an  animated 
discussion,  in  which  the  rival  claims  of  Herve  and 
Planquette  were  forcibly  argued.  Many  cigarettes  were 
smoked,  and  not  until  the  packet  was  emptied  did  it 
occur  to  them  that  only  one  '  wheeze '  had  been  found. 

'  I  never  can  do  anything  without  a  cigarette;  do  try 
to  find  me  one  in  the  next  room,  Kate,  dear.  Listen, 
Montgomery,  we've  got  "  Baillie,  you've  a  fat  head." 
That'll  do  very  well  for  a  beginning;  but  I'm  not  good 
at  finding  wheezes.' 

'  And  then  I  can  say,  "  Baillie,  you've  a  fine  head,"  ' 
said  Kate,  who  had  been  listening  dreamily  for  a  long 
time,  afraid  to  interrupt. 

'  Not  a  bad  idea/  said  Dick.     '  Let's  get  it  down.' 

'  And  then,'  screamed  Montgomery,  as  he  perched 
both  his  legs  over  the  arm  of  his  chair,  '  she  can  say, 
"  I  mean  a  great  head,  Mr.  Baillie."  ' 

For  a  moment  Dick's  eyes  flashed  with  the  light  of 
admiration,  and  he  seemed  to  be  considering  if  it  were 
not  his  duty  to  advise  the  conductor  that  his  talents 
lay  in  dialogue  rather  than  in  music.  But  his  senti- 
ments, whatever  they  may  have  been,  disappeared  in 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  233 

the  burst  of  inspiration  he  had  been  waiting  for  so 
long. 

'  We  can  go  through  the  whole  list  of  heads,'  he 
exclaimed  triumphantly.  '  Fat  head,  fine  head,  broad 
head,  thick  head,  massive  head — yes,  massive  head.  The 
Baillie  will  appear  pleased  at  that,  and  will  repeat  the 
phrase,  and  then  she  will  say  "  Dunderhead ! "  He'll 
get  angry,  and  she'll  run  away.  That'll  make  a  splen- 
did exit — she'll  exit  to  a  roar.' 

Dick  noted  down  the  phrases  on  a  piece  of  paper, 
to  be  pasted  afterwards  into  the  scrip.  When  this  was 
done,  he  said: 

'  My  dear,  if  you  don't  get  a  roar  with  these  lines, 

you  can  call  me  a  And  when  we  play  the  piece 

at  Hull,  I  shouldn't  be  surprised  if  you  got  noticed  in 
the  papers.  But  you  must  pluck  up  courage  and  cheek 
the  Baillie.  We  must  put  up  a  rehearsal  to-morrow  for 
these  lines.  Now  listen,  Montgomery,  and  tell  me  how 
it  reads.' 


XV 


'  REHEARSAL  to-morrow  at  twelve  for  all  those  in  the 
front  scene  of  the  Cloches,'  cried  the  stage-door  keeper 
to  half-a-dozen  girls  as  they  pushed  past  him. 

'  Well  I  never,  and  I  was  going  out  to  see  the  castle 
and  the  ramparts  of  the  town,'  said  one  girl. 

'  I  wonder  what  it's  for,'  said  another ;  '  it  went  all 
right,  I  thought — didn't  you?  Did  you  hear  any  rea- 
son, Mr.  Brown  ?  ' 

'  I  'ear  there  are  to  be  new  lines  put  in/  replied  the 
stage-door  keeper,  surlily,  '  but  I  don't  know.  Don't 
bother  me.' 

At  the  mention  of  the  new  lines  the  faces  of  the  girls 
brightened  but  instantly  they  strove  to  hide  the  hope  and 
anxiety  the  announcement  had  caused  them,  and  in  the 
silence  that  followed  each  tried  to  think  how  she  could 
get  a  word  with  Mr.  Lennox.  At  length  one  more  enter- 
prising than  the  rest  said: 

'  I  must  run  back.     I've  forgotten  my  handkerchief/ 

'  You  needn't  mind  your  handkerchief,  you  won't  see 
Mr.  Lennox  to-night,'  exclaimed  Dolly,  who  always  tram- 
pled on  other  people's  illusions  as  readily  as  she  did  on 
her  own.  '  The  lines  aren't  for  you  nor  me,  nor  any 
of  us/  she  continued.  '  You  little  silly,  can't  you  guess 
who  they're  for?  For  his  girl,  of  course!' 

Murmurs  of  assent  followed  this  statement,  and,  her 

234 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  235 

hands  on  her  hips,  Dolly  triumphantly  faced  her  audi- 
tors. 

'  It's  damned  hard  but  you  can't  expect  the  man  to 
take  her  out  of  her  linen-drapery  for  nothing.' 

The  old  stage-door  keeper,  whose  attention  had  been 
concentrated  on  what  he  was  eating  out  of  a  jam-pot, 
now  suddenly  woke  up  to  the  fact  that  the  passage  was 
blocked,  and  that  a  group  of  musicians  with  boxes  in 
their  hands  were  waiting  to  get  through. 

'  Now,  ladies,  I  must  ask  you  to  move  on,  there're  a 
lot  of  people  behind  you.' 

'  Yes,  get  on,  girl ;  we're  all  up  a  tree  this  time,  and 
the  moral  of  it  is  that  we  haven't  yet  learnt  how  to  fall 
in  love  with  the  manager.  The  paper-collar  woman  has 
beaten  us  at  our  own  game.' 

A  roar  of  laughter  followed  this  remark,  which  was 
heard  by  everybody,  and  pushing  the  girls  before  her, 
Dolly  cleared  the  way. 

These  girls,  whose  ambitions  in  life  were  first  to  ob- 
tain a  line — that  is  to  say,  permission  to  shout,  in  their 
red  tights,  when  the  low  comedian  appears  on  the  stage, 
'  Oh,  what  a  jolly  good  fellow  the  Duke  is! ' — secondly, 
to  be  asked  out  to  dinner  by  somebody  they  imagine 
looks  like  a  gentleman,  revolted  against  hearing  this  pa- 
per-collar woman,  as  they  now  called  her,  speak  the  long- 
dreamed-of,  long-described  phrases;  and  at  night  they 
did  everything  they  dared  to  '  queer'  her  scene.  They 
crowded  round  her,  mugged,  and  tried  to  divert  the  at- 
tention of  the  house  from  her. 

She  had  to  say,  '  Mr.  Baillie,  you've  a  fine  head/ 
Baillie  (patting  his  crown):  'Yes,  a  fine  head!'  Kate: 
'  A  fat  head.'  Baillie  (indignantly}  :  '  A  fat  head ! ' 
Kate  (hurriedly}:  'I  mean  a  broad  head.'  Baillie: 
'  Yes,  a  broad  head.'  Kate:  '  A  thick  head.'  Baillie 


236  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

(indignantly*) :  '  A  thick  head ! '  Kate:  '  No,  no;  a  solid 
head.'  And  so  on  ad  lib.  for  ten  minutes. 

The  scene  went  splendidly.  The  pit  screamed,  and 
the  gallery  was  in  convulsions,  and  in  the  street  next 
day  nothing  was  heard  but  ironical  references  to  fat 
and  thick  heads.  The  girls  had  not  succeeded  in  spoil- 
ing the  scene,  for,  encouraged  by  the  applause,  Kate 
had  chaffed  and  mocked  at  the  Baillie  so  winningly  that 
she  at  once  won  the  sympathy  of  the  house.  But  the 
following  night  a  tall,  sour-faced  girl,  who  wore  pads, 
and  with  whom  Kate  had  had  some  words  concerning 
her  coarse  language,  hit  upon  an  ingenious  device  for 
*  queering  the  scene ! '  Her  trick  was  to  burst  into  a 
roar  of  laughter  just  before  she  had  time  to  say,  '  A  fat 
head/  The  others  soon  tumbled  to  the  trick,  and  in  a 
night  or  two  they  worked  so  well  together  that  Kate 
grew  nervous  and  she  could  not  speak  her  lines.  This 
made  her  feel  very  miserable;  and  her  stage  experience 
being  limited,  she  ascribed  her  non-success  to  her  own 
fault,  until  one  night  Dick  rushed  on  to  the  stage  as 
soon  as  the  curtain  was  down,  and  putting  up  his  arms 
with  a  large  gesture,  he  called  the  company  back. 

'  Ladies  and  gentlemen/  he  said,  '  I've  noticed  that 
the  front  scene  in  this  act  has  not  been  going  as  well 
as  it  used  to.  I  don't  want  anyone  to  tell  me  why  this 
is  so;  the  reason  is  sufficiently  obvious,  at  least  to  me. 
I  shall  expect,  therefore,  the  ladies  whom  this  matter 
concerns  to  attend  a  rehearsal  to-morrow  at  twelve, 
and  if  after  that  I  notice  what  I  did  to-night,  I  shall  at 
once  dismiss  the  delinquents  from  the  company.  I  hope 
I  make  myself  understood.' 

After  this  explanation,  any  further  interference  with 
Kate's  scene  was,  of  course,  out  of  the  question,  and  the 
verdict  of  each  new  town  more  and  more  firmly  estab- 
lished its  success.  But  if  Dick's  presence  controlled  the 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  237 

girls  whilst  they  were  on  the  stage,  his  authority  did 
not  reach  to  the  dressing-rooms.  Kate's  particular 
enemy  was  Dolly  Goddard.  Not  a  night  passed  that 
this  girl  did  not  refer  to  the  divorce  cases  she  had  read 
of  in  the  papers,  or  pretended  to  have  heard  of.  Her 
natural  sharp  wit  enabled  her  to  do  this  with  consider- 
able acidity.  '  Never  heard  such  a  thing  in  my  life, 
girls,'  she  would  begin.  '  They  talk  of  us,  but  what  we 
do  is  child's  play  compared  with  the  doings  of  the  re- 
spectable people.  A  baker's  wife  in  this  blessed  town 
has  just  run  away  with  the  editor  of  a  newspaper,  leav- 
ing her  six  little  children  behind  her,  one  of  them  being 
a  baby  no  more  than  a  month  old.' 

'What  will  the  husband  do?' 

'  Get  a  divorce.'  (Chorus — '  He'll  get  a  divorce,  of 
course,  of  course,  of  course!') 

To  this  delicate  irony  no  answer  was  possible,  and 
Kate  could  only  bite  her  lips,  and  pretend  not  to  under- 
stand. But  it  was  difficult  not  to  turn  pale  and  tremble 
sometimes,  so  agonizing  were  the  anecdotes  that  the 
active  brain  of  Dolly  conjured  up  concerning  the  atroci- 
ties that  pursuing  husbands  had  perpetrated  with  knife 
and  pistol  on  the  betrayers  of  their  happiness.  And 
when  these  scarecrows  failed,  there  were  always  the  sto- 
ries to  fall  back  upon.  A  word  sufficed  to  set  the  whole 
gang  recounting  experiences,  and  comparing  notes.  A 
sneer  often  curled  the  corners  of  Kate's  lips,  but  to  pro- 
test she  knew  would  be  only  to  expose  herself  to  a  rude 
answer,  and  to  appeal  to  Dick  couldn't  fail  to  excite 
still  further  enmity  against  her.  Besides,  what  could 
he  do?  How  could  he  define  what  were  and  what  were 
not  proper  conversations  for  the  dressing-rooms?  But 
she  might  ask  him  to  put  her  to  dress  with  the  princi- 
pals, and  this  she  decided  to  do  one  evening  when  the 
words  used  in  No.  6  had  been  more  than  usually  warm. 


238  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

Dick  made  no  objection,  and  with  Leslie  and  Beau- 
mont Kate  got  on  better. 

'I'm  so  glad  you've  come,'  said  Leslie,  as  she  bent 
to  allow  the  dresser  to  place  a  wreath  of  orange-blossom 
on  her  head.  '  I  wonder  you  didn't  think  of  asking  Mr. 
Lennox  to  put  you  with  us  before.' 

'  I  didn't  like  to.  I  was  afraid  of  being  in  your  way/ 
Kate  answered.  '  I  hope  Beaumont  won't  mind  my 
being  here.' 

'  What  matter  if  she  does  ?  Beaumont  isn't  half  a 
bad  sort  once  you  begin  to  understand  her.  Just  let  her 
talk  to  you  about  her  diamonds  and  her  men,  and  it  will 
be  all  right.' 

'  But  why  haven't  you  been  to  see  me  lately  ?  I  want 
you  to  come  out  shopping  with  me  one  day  next  week. 
We  shall  be  at  York.  I  hear  there  are  some  good  shops 
there.' 

'  Yes,  there  are,  and  I  should  l.ave  been  to  see  you 
before,  but  Frank  has  just  got  me  some  new  scores  from 
London,  and  he  wanted  me  to  try  them  over  with  him. 
There's  one  that's  just  been  produced  in  Paris — the 
loveliest  music  you  ever  heard  in  all  your  life.  Come  up 
to  my  place  to-morrow  and  I'll  play  it  over  to  you. 
But  talking  of  music,  I  hear  that  you're  getting  on 
nicely.' 

'I  think  I'm  improving;  Montgomery  comes  to  prac- 
tise with  me  every  morning.' 

'  He's  all  very  well  for  the  piano,  but  he  can't  teach 
you  to  produce  your  voice.  What  does  he  know?  That 
brat  of  a  boy!  I'll  tell  you  what  I'll  do,'  cried  Leslie, 
suddenly  confronting  Kate :  '  we're  going  to  York  next 
week.  Well,  I'll  introduce  you  to  a  first-rate  man. 
He'd  do  more  with  you  in  six  lessons  than  Montgomery 
in  fifty.  And  the  week  after  we  shall  be  at  Leeds.  I 
can  introduce  you  to  another  there.' 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  239 

'  The  curtain  is  just  going  up,  Miss  Leslie/  cried  the 
call-boy. 

'  All  right,'  cried  the  prima  donna,  throwing  the 
hare's  foot  to  the  dresser.  '  I  must  be  off  now.  We'll 
talk  of  this  to-morrow.' 

Immediately  after  the  stately  figure  of  Beaumont  en- 
tered. Putting  her  black  bag  down  with  a  thump  on  the 
table  she  exclaimed: 

'  Good  heavens !  not  dressed  yet !  My  God !  you'll  be 
late.' 

'Late  for  what?'  asked  Kate  in  astonishment. 

'  Didn't  Mr.  Lennox  tell  you  that  you  had  to  sing  my 
song,  the  market  woman's  song,  in  the  first  act?' 

'  No,  I  heard  nothing  of  it.' 

'  Then  for  goodness'  sake  make  haste.  Here,  stick 
your  face  out.  I'll  do  your  make-up  while  the  dresser 
laces  you.  But  you'll  be  able  to  manage  the  song,  won't 
you?  It's  quite  impossible  for  me  to  get  dressed  in 
time.  I  can't  understand  Mr.  Lennox  not  having  told 
you.' 

'  Oh,  yes,  I  shall  be  able  to  get  through  it — at  least 
I  hope  so,'  Kate  answered,  trembling  with  the  sudden 
excitement  of  the  news.  '  I  think  I  know  all  the  words 
except  the  encore  verse.' 

'  Oh,  you  won't  need  that,'  said  Beaumont,  betrayed 
by  a  twinge  of  professional  jealousy.  '  Now  turn  the 
other  cheek.  By  Jove,  we've  no  time  to  lose;  they're 
just  finishing  the  wedding  chorus.  If  you're  late  it 
won't  be  my  fault.  I  sent  down  word  to  the  theatre  to 
ask  if  you'd  sing  my  song  in  the  first  act,  as  I  had 
some  friends  coming  down  from  London  to  see  me. 
You  know  the  Marquis  of  Shoreham — has  been  a  friend 
of  mine  for  years.  That'll  do  for  the  left  eye.' 

'  If  you  put  out  your  leg  a  little  further  I'll  pull  on 
your  stocking,  and  then  you'll  be  all  right,'  said  the 


240  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

dresser,  and  just  staying  a  moment  to  pull  up  her  gar- 
ters in  a  sort  of  nervous  trance,  she  rushed  on  to  the 
stage,  followed  into  the  wings  by  Beaumont,  who  had 
come  to  hear  how  the  song  would  go. 

She  was  a  complete  success,  and  got  a  double  encore 
from  an  enthusiastic  pit.  But  in  Madame  Favart  she 
had  nothing  to  do,  and  wearied  waiting  in  the  chorus  for 
another  chance  which  never  came,  for  after  her  success 
with  the  fish-wife's  song  in  Madame  Angot,  Beaumont 
took  good  care  not  to  give  her  another  chance.  What 
was  to  be  done?  Dick  said  he  couldn't  sack  the  prin- 
cipals. 

'  Kate  could  play  Serpolette  as  it  was  never  played 
before/  exclaimed  Montgomery,  '  and  I  see  no  reason 
why  she  shouldn't  understudy  Leslie.' 

'  But  What's-her-name  is  understudying  it.' 
'  Why  shouldn't  there  be  two  understudies  ?' 
Dick  could  advance  no  reason,  and  once  begun,  the 
studies  proceeded  gaily.  Apparently  deeply  interested, 
Dick  lay  back  in  the  armchair  smoking  perpetual 
cigarettes.  Montgomery  hammered  with  nervous  vigour 
at  the  piano,  and  Kate  stood  by  his  side,  her  soul  burn- 
ing in  the  ardours  of  her  task.  She  would  have  pre- 
ferred the  part  of  Germaine;  it  would  have  better  suited 
her  gentle  mind  than  the  frisky  Serpolette;  but  it 
seemed  vain  to  hope  for  illness  or  any  accident  that 
would  prevent  Beaumont  from  playing.  True,  Leslie 
was  often  imprudent,  and  praying  for  a  bronchial  visi- 
tation they  watched  at  night  to  see  how  she  was 
wrapped  up. 

As  soon  as  Kate  knew  the  music,  a  rehearsal  was 
called  for  her  to  go  through  the  business,  and  it  was 
then  that  the  long-smouldering  indignation  broke  out 
against  her.  In  the  first  place  the  girl  who  till  now 
had  been  entrusted  with  the  understudy,  and  had  like- 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  241 

wise  lived  in  the  hopes  of  coughs  and  colds,  burst  into 
floods  of  passionate  tears  and  storms  of  violent  words. 
She  attacked  Kate  vigorously,  and  the  scene  was  doubly 
unpleasant,  as  it  took  place  in  the  presence  of  every- 
body. Bitter  references  were  made  to  dying  and  de- 
serted husbands,  and  all  the  acridness  of  the  chorus- 
girl  was  squeezed  into  allusions  anent  the  Divorce 
Court.  This  was  as  disagreeable  for  Dick  as  for  Kate. 
The  rehearsal  had  to  be  dismissed,  and  the  lady  in  ques- 
tion was  sent  back  to  London.  Sympathy  at  first  ran 
very  strongly  on  the  side  of  the  weak,  and  the  ladies  of 
the  theatre  were  united  in  their  efforts  to  make  it  as  dis- 
agreeable as  possible  for  Kate.  But  she  bore  up  coura- 
geously, and  after  a  time  her  continual  refusal  to  re- 
hearse the  part  again  won  a  reaction  in  her  favour;  and 
when  Miss  Leslie's  cold  began  to  grow  worse,  and  it 
became  clear  that  someone  must  understudy  Serpolette, 
the  part  fell  without  opposition  to  her  share. 

And  now  every  minute  of  the  day  was  given  to  learn- 
ing or  thinking  out  in  her  inner  consciousness  some  por- 
tion of  her  part.  In  the  middle  of  her  breakfast  she 
would  hurriedly  lay  down  her  cup  with  a  clink  in  the 
saucer  and  say,  'Look  here,  Dick;  tell  me  how  I'm  to 
do  that  run  in — my  first  entrance,  you  know.' 

'  What  are  your  words,  dear  ?' 
"  Who  speaks  ill  of  Serpolette  ?  " 

The  breakfast-table  would  then  be  pushed  out  of  the 
way  and  the  entrance  rehearsed.  Dick  seemed  never  to 
weary,  and  the  run  was  practised  over  and  over  again. 
Coming  home  from  the  theatre  at  night,  it  was  always 
a  question  of  this  effect  and  that  effect;  of  whether 
Leslie  might  not  have  scored  a  point  if  she  had  accentu- 
ated the  lifting  of  her  skirt  in  the  famous  song. 

That  was,  as  Dick  declared,  the  'number  of  grip'; 
and  often,  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  just  as  she 


242  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

was  getting  into  bed,  Kate  in  her  chemise,  would  begin 
to  sing: 

'  Look  at  me  here !  look  at  me  there ! 
Criticize  me  everywhere! 
From  head  to  feet  I  am  most  sweet, 
And  most  perfect  and  complete.' 

There  was  a  scene  in  the  first  act  in  which  Serpolette 
had  to  run  screaming  with  laughter  away  from  her  cross 
old  uncle,  Gaspard,  and  dodge  him,  hiding  behind  the 
Baillie,  and  to  do  this  effectively  required  a  certain  chic. 
a  gaiety,  which  Kate  did  not  seem  able  to  summon  up; 
and  this  was  the  weak  place  in  her  rendering  of  the 
part.  '  You're  all  right  for  a  minute,  and  then  you 
sober  down  into  a  Germaine/  Dick  would  say,  at  the 
end  of  a  long  and  critical  conversation.  The  business 
she  learned  to  '  parrot/  Dick  taught  her  the  gestures 
and  the  intonations  of  voice  to  be  used,  and  when  she 
had  mastered  these  Dick  said  he  would  back  her  to  go 
through  the  part  quite  as  well  as  Leslie. 

Leslie !  The  word  was  now  constantly  in  their  minds. 
Would  her  cold  get  worse  or  better?  was  the  question 
discussed  most  frequently  between  Dick,  Kate,  and 
Montgomery.  Sometimes  it  was  better,  sometimes 
worse;  but  at  the  moment  of  their  greatest  despondency 
the  welcome  news  came  that  she  had  slipped  downstairs 
and  sprained  her  foot  badly. 

'Oh,  the  poor  thing!'  said  Kate;  I'm  so  sorry.  Had 
I  known  that  was ' 

'  Was  going  to  happen  you  wouldn't  have  learnt  the 
part,'  exclaimed  Montgomery,  with  his  loud,  vacant 
laugh. 

She  beat  her  foot  impatiently  on  the  ground  and 
after  a  long  silence  she  said,  '  I  shall  go  and  see  her.' 

'  You'd  much  better  run  through  your  music  with 
Montgomery,  and  don't  forget  to  see  the  dresser  about 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  243 

your  dress.  And,  for  God's  sake,  do  try  and  put  a  bit 
of  gaiety  into  the  part.  Serpolette  is  a  bit  of  a  romp, 
you  know.' 

'  Try  to  put  a  bit  of  gaiety  into  the  part,'  rang  in 
Kate's  ears  unceasingly.  It  haunted  her  as  she  took  in 
the  waist  of  Leslie's  dress,  while  she  leaned  over  Mont- 
gomery's shoulder  at  the  piano  or  listened  to  his  con- 
versation. He  was  enthusiastic,  and  she  thought  it  very 
pretty  of  him  to  say,  '  I'm  glad  to  have  had  a  share  in 
your  first  success.  No  one  ever  forgets  that — that's 
sure  to  be  remembered.' 

It  was  the  nearest  thing  to  a  profession  of  love  he 
had  ever  made,  but  she  was  preoccupied  with  other 
thoughts,  and  had  to  send  him  away  for  a  last  time  to 
study  the  dialogue  before  the  glass. 

'  Try  to  put  a  little  gaiety  into  the  part.  Serpolette 
is  a  romp,  you  know.' 

'  Yes,  a  romp ;  but  what  is  a  romp  ?'  Kate  asked  her- 
self; and  she  strove  to  realize  in  detail  that  which  she 
had  accepted  till  now  in  outline. 


XVI 


'  LADIES  and  gentlemen/  said  Mr.  Hayes,  who  had  been 
pushed,  much  against  his  will,  before  the  curtain  of  the 
Theatre  Royal,  Bristol,  to  make  the  following  state- 
ment, '  I'm  sorry  to  inform  you  that  in  consequence  of 
indisposition — that  is  to  say,  the  accidental  spraining  of 
her  ankle — Miss  Leslie  will  not  be  able  to  appear  to- 
night. Your  kind  indulgence  is  therefore  requested  for 
Miss  D'Arcy,  who  has,  on  the  shortest  notice,  consented 
to  play  the  part  of  Serpolette.' 

'  Did  you  ever  'ear  of  anyone  spraining  an  ankle  on 
purpose?'  asked  a  scene-shifter. 

'  Hush !'  said  the  gas-man,  '  he'll  'ear  you.' 

Amid  murmurs  of  applause,  Mr.  Hayes  backed  into 
the  wings. 

'Well,  was  it  all  right?'  he  asked  Dick. 

'  Right,  my  boy,  I  should  think  it  was ;  there  was  a 
touch  of  Gladstone  in  your  accidentally  sprained  ankle.' 

'What  do  you  mean?'  said  the  discomfited  acting 
manager. 

4 1  haven't  time  to  tell  you  now.  Now  then,  girls, 
are  you  ready?'  he  said,  rushing  on  to  the  stage  and 
hurriedly  changing  the  places  of  the  choristers.  Put- 
ting his  hand  on  a  girl's  shoulder,  he  moved  her  to  the 
right  or  left  as  his  taste  dictated.  Then  retiring 

244 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  245 

abruptly,  he  cried,  '  Now  then,  up  you  go !'  and  immedi- 
ately after  thirty  voices  in  one  sonority  sang: 

'  In    Corneville's    wide    market    pla-a-ces, 
Sweet  servant  girls,  with  rosy  fa-a-ces, 
Wait  here,  wait  here.' 

'  Now,  then,  come  on.    You  make  your  entrance  from 
the  top  left.' 

'  I  don't  think  I  shall  ever  be  able  to  do  that  run  in.' 
'  Don't  begin  to  think  about  anything.  If  you  don't 
like  the  run,  I'll  tell  you  how  to  do  it/  said  Dick,  his 
face  lighting  up  with  a  sudden  inspiration ;  '  do  it  with 
a  cheeky  swagger,  walking  very  slowly,  like  this;  and 
then  when  you  get  quarter  of  the  way  down  the  stage, 
stop  for  a  moment  and  sing,  "  Who  speaks  ill  of  Serpo- 
lette?"  Do  you  see?' 

'  Yes,  yes,  that  will  suit  me  better ;  I  understand.' 
Then  standing  under  the  sloping  wing,  they  both  lis- 
tened anxiously  for  the  cue. 
'  She  loves  Grenicheux.' 

'  There's  your  cue.  On  you  go,  give  me  your  shawl.' 
The  footlights  dazzled  her;  a  burst  of  applause 
rather  frightened  than  reassured  her,  and  a  prey  to  a 
sort  of  dull  dream,  she  sang  her  first  lines.  But  she 
was  a  little  behind  the  beat.  Montgomery  brought  down 
his  stick  furiously,  the  repliques  of  the  girls  buffeted 
her  ears  like  palms  of  hands,  and  it  was  not  until  she 
was  halfway  through  the  gossfping  couplets,  and  saw 
Montgomery's  arm  swing  peacefully  to  and  fro  over  the 
bent  profiles  of  the  musicians  that  she  fairly  recovered 
her  presence  of  mind.  Then  came  the  little  scene  in 
which  she  runs  away  from  her  uncle  Gaspard  and  hides 
behind  the  Baillie.  And  she  dodged  the  old  man  with 
such  sprightliness  from  one  side  of  the  stage  to  the 
other  that  a  murmur  of  admiration  floated  over  the  pit, 


246  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

and,  arising  in  echoes,  was  prolonged  almost  until  she 
stepped  down  to  the  footlights  to  sing  the  legend  of 
Serpolette. 

The  quaintly  tripping  cadences  of  the  tune  and  the 
humour  of  the  words,  which  demanded  to  be  rather  said 
than  sung,  were  rendered  to  perfection.  It  was  impos- 
sible not  to  like  her  when  she  said: 

'  I  know  not  much  of  my  relations, 

I  never  saw  my  mother's  face; 
And  of  preceding  generations 
I  never  found  a  single  trace. 

4 1  may  have  fallen  from  the  sky, 

Or  blossomed  in  a  rosebud  sweet; 
But  all  I  know  is  this,  that  I 
Was  found  by  Gaspard  in  his  wheat.' 

A  smile  of  delight  filled  the  theatre,  and  Kate  felt 
the  chilling  sense  of  separation  which  exists  between 
the  public  and  a  debutante  being  gradually  filled  in  by 
a  delicious  but  almost  incomprehensible  notion  of  con- 
tact— a  sensation  more  delicate  than  the  touch  of  a 
lover's  breath  on  your  face.  This  reached  a  climax 
when  she  sang  the  third  verse,  and  had  not  etiquette 
forbade,  she  would  have  had  an  encore  for  it  alone. 

4 1  often  think  that  perhaps  I  may 

The  heiress  to  a  kingdom  be, 
But  as  I  wore  no  clothes  that  day 
I  brought  no  papers  out  with  me.' 

These  words,  that  had  often  seemed  coarse  in  Les- 
lie's mouth,  in  Kate's  seemed  adorably  simple.  So  win- 
ning was  the  smile  and  so  coquettishly  conscious  did  she 
seem  of  the  compromising  nature  of  the  statement  she 
was  making,  that  the  entire  theatre  was  actuated  by  the 
impulse  of  one  thought:  Oh!  what  a  little  dear  you  must 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  247 

have  been  lying  in  the  wheat-field !  The  personality  of 
the  actress  disappeared  in  the  rosy  thighs  and  chubby 
arms  of  the  foundling,  and  notwithstanding  the  length 
of  the  song,  she  had  to  sing  it  twice  over.  Then  there 
was  an  exit  for  her,  and  she  rushed  into  the  wings. 
Several  of  the  girls  spoke  to  her,  but  it  was  impossible 
for  her  to  reply  to  them.  Everything  swam  in  and  out 
of  sight  like  shapes  in  a  mist,  and  she  could  only  dis- 
tinguish the  burly  form  of  her  lover.  He  wrapped  a 
shawl  about  her,  and  a  murmur  of  amiable  words  fol- 
lowed her  and,  with  her  thoughts  fizzing  like  cham- 
pagne, she  tried  to  listen  to  his  praises. 

Then  followed  moments  in  which  she  anxiously 
waited  for  her  cues.  She  was  nervously  afraid  of  miss- 
ing her  entrance,  and  she  dreaded  spoiling  her  success 
by  some  mistake.  But  it  was  not  until  the  end  of  the 
act  when  she  stepped  out  of  the  crowd  of  servant-girls 
to  sing  the  famous  coquetting  song  that  she  reached  the 
summit  of  her  triumph. 

Kate  was  about  the  medium  height,  a  shade  over  five 
feet  five.  When  she  swung  her  little  dress  as  she  strut- 
ted on  the  stage  she  reminded  you  immediately  of  a 
pigeon.  In  her  apparent  thinness  from  time  to  time 
was  revealed  a  surprising  plumpness. 

For  instance,  her  bosom,  in  a  walking  dress  no  more 
than  an  indication,  in  a  low  body  assumed  the  round- 
ness of  a  bird's,  and  the  white  lines  of  her  falling  shoul- 
ders floated  in  long  undulations  into  the  blue  masses 
of  her  hair.  The  nervous  sensibility  of  her  profession 
had  awakened  her  face,  and  now  the  brown  eyes 
laughed  with  the  spiritual  maliciousness  with  which  we 
willingly  endow  the  features  of  a  good  fairy.  The  hips 
were  womanly,  the  ankle  was  only  a  touch  of  stocking, 
and  the  whole  house  rose  to  a  man  and  roared  when 
coquettishly  lifting  the  skirt,  she  sang: 
17 


248  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

*  Look  at  me  here,  look  at  me  there, 
Criticize  me  everywhere. 
I  am  most  sweet  from  head  to  feet, 
And  most  perfect  and  complete.' 

The  audience,  principally  composed  of  sailors — men 
home  from  months  of  watery  weariness,  nights  of  toil 
and  darkness,  maddened  by  the  irritating  charm  of  the 
music  and  the  delicious  modernity  of  Kate's  figure  and 
dress,  looked  as  if  they  were  going  to  precipitate  them- 
selves from  the  galleries.  Was  she  not  the  living  reality 
of  the  figures  posted  over  the  hammocks  in  oil-smelling 
cabins,  the  prototype  of  the  short-skirted  damsels  that 
decorated  the  empty  match-boxes  which  they  preserved 
and  gazed  at  under  the  light  of  the  stars? 

Her  success  was  enormous,  and  she  was  forced  to  sing 

'Look  at  me  here,' 

five  times  before  her  friends  would  allow  the  piece  to 
proceed.  At  the  end  of  the  act  she  received  an  ovation. 
Two  reporters  of  the  local  newspapers  obtained  per- 
mission to  come  behind  to  see  her.  London  engage- 
ments were  spoken  of,  and  in  the  general  enthusiasm 
someone  talked  about  grand  opera.  Even  her  fellow 
artists  forgot  their  jealousies,  and  in  the  nervous  excite- 
ment of  the  moment  complimented  her  highly.  Beau- 
mont, anxious  to  kick  down  her  rival,  declared,  '  That, 
to  say  the  least  of  it,  it  was  a  better  rendering  of  the 
part  than  Leslie's.'  And  on  hearing  this,  Bret,  whose 
forte  was  not  repartee,  moved  away;  Mortimer,  in  his 
least  artificial  manner,  said  that  it  was  not  bad  for  a 
beginning  and  that  she'd  get  on  if  she  worked  at  it. 
Dubois  strutted  and  spoke  learnedly  of  how  the  part 
had  been  played  in  France,  and  he  was  pleased  to  trace 
by  an  analysis  which  was  difficult  to  follow  a  resem- 
blance between  Kate  and  Madame  Judic. 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  24Q 

The  second  act  went  equally  well.  And  after  seeing 
the  ghosts  she  got  a  bouquet  thrown  to  her,  so  cheekily 
did  she  sing  the  refrain: 

'  For  a  regiment  of  soldiers  wouldn't  make  me  afraid/ 

She  had  therefore  now  only  to  maintain  her  prestige 
to  the  end,  and  when  she  had  got  her  encore  for  the 
cider  song,  and  had  been  recalled  before  the  curtain  at 
the  end  of  the  third  act,  with  unstrung  nerves  she  wan- 
dered to  her  dressing-room,  thinking  of  what  Dick 
would  say  when  they  got  home.  But  the  pleasures  of 
the  evening  were  not  over  yet:  there  was  the  supper, 
and  as  she  came  down  from  her  dressing-room  she  whis- 
pered to  Montgomery  in  the  wings  that  they  hoped  to 
see  him  at  their  place  later  on.  He  thanked  her  and 
said  he  would  be  very  glad  to  come  in  a  little  later  on, 
but  he  had  some  music  to  copy  now  and  must  away,  and 
feeling  a  little  disappointed  that  he  had  to  leave  she 
walked  up  and  down  the  rough  boards,  stepping  out  of 
the  way  of  the  scene-shifters.  '  By  your  leave,  ma'am/ 
they  cried,  going  by  her  with  the  long  swinging  wings. 
She  was  glad  now  that  Montgomery  had  left  her,  for 
alone  she  could  relive  distinctly  every  moment  of  the 
performance. 

As  the  chorus  girls  crossed  the  stage  they  stopped 
to  compliment  her  with  a  few  mechanical  words  and  a 
hard  smile.  Kate  thanked  them  and  returned  to  her 
dream  all  aglow  and  absorbed  in  remembrances  of  her 
success.  The  word  '  success  '  returned  in  her  thoughts 
like  the  refrain  of  a  song.  Yes,  she  had  succeeded. 
Wherever  she  went  she  would  be  admired.  There  was 
something  to  live  for  at  last. 

The  T-light  flared  and  she  stopped  and  began  to 
wonder  at  the  invention,  so  absurd  did  it  seem,  and  then 


250  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

feeling  that  such  thoughts  were  a  waste  of  time  she  took 
up  the  thread  of  her  memories  and  had  just  begun  to 
enjoy  again  a  certain  round  of  applause  when  Beau- 
mont and  Dolly  Goddard  awoke  her  with  the  question, 
had  she  seen  Dick?  Kate  tried  to  remember.  A  scene 
shifter  going  by  said  that  he  had  seen  Mr.  Lennox 
leave  the  threatre  some  twenty  minutes  ago. 

'  I  suppose  he  will  come  back  for  me/  Kate  said;  '  or 
perhaps  I'd  better  go  on?  Are  you  coming  my  way?' 

Beaumont  and  Dolly  said  they  were  and  proposed 
that  they  should  pop  into  a  pub  before  closing  time. 
Kate  hesitated  to  accept  the  invitation,  but  Beaumont 
insisted,  and  as  it  was  a  question  of  drinking  to  the 
night's  success  she  consented  to  accompany  them. 

'  No,  not  here/  said  Beaumont,  shoving  the  swing 
doors  an  inch  or  so  apart:  'it's  too  full.  I'll  show  you 
the  way  round  by  the  side  entrance.' 

And  giggling,  the  girls  slipped  into  the  private 
apartment. 

'What  will  you  have,  dear?'  asked  Beaumont  in  an 
apologetic  whisper. 

'  I  think  I'll  have  a  whisky.' 

'You'll  have  the  same,  Dolly?' 

'  Scotch  or  Irish  ?'  asked  the  barman. 

The  girls  consulted  a  moment  and  decided  in  favour 
of  Irish. 

With  nods  and  glances,  the  health  of  Serpolette  was 
drunk,  and  then  fearing  to  look  as  if  she  were  spong- 
ing, Kate  insisted  on  likewise  standing  treat.  Fortu- 
nately, when  the  second  round  had  been  drunk,  closing 
time  was  announced  by  the  man  in  the  shirt-sleeves, 
and  bidding  her  friends  good-bye,  Kate  stood  in  the 
street  trying  to  think  if  she  ought  to  return  to  the  thea- 
tre to  look  after  Dick  or  go  home  and  find  him  there. 

She    decided    on    the    latter   alternative    and    walked 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  251 

slowly  along  the  street.  A  chill  wind  blew  up  from  the 
sea,  and  the  sudden  transition  from  the  hot  atmosphere 
of  the  bar  brought  the  fumes  of  the  whisky  to  her  head 
and  she  felt  a  little  giddy.  An  idea  of  drunkenness 
suggested  itself;  it  annoyed  her,  and  repulsing  it  vehe- 
mently, her  thoughts  somewhat  savagely  fastened  on  to 
Dick  as  the  culprit.  '  Where  had  he  gone  ?'  she  asked, 
at  first  curiously,  but  at  each  repetition  she  put  the 
question  more  sullenly  to  herself.  If  he  had  come  back 
to  fetch  her  she  would  not  have  been  led  into  going  into 
the  public-house  with  Beaumont;  and,  irritated  that  any 
shadow  should  have  fallen  on  the  happiness  of  the  even- 
ing, she  walked  sturdily  along  until  a  sudden  turn 
brought  her  face  to  face  with  her  lover. 

'  Oh !'  he  said,  starting.  '  Is  that  you,  Kate  ?  I  was 
just  cutting  back  to  the  theatre  to  fetch  you.' 

'  Yes,  a  nice  time  you've  kept  me  waiting/  she  an- 
swered; but  as  she  spoke  she  recognized  the  street  they 
were  in  as  the  one  in  which  Leslie  lived.  The  blood 
rushed  to  her  face,  and  tearing  the  while  the  paper 
fringe  of  her  bouquet,  she  said:  '  I  know  very  well 
where  you've  been  to!  I  want  no  telling.  You've  been 
round  spending  your  time  with  Leslie.' 

'  Well,'  said  Dick,  embarrassed  by  the  directness  with 
which  she  divined  his  errand,  '  I  don't  see  what  harm 
there  was  in  that;  I  really  thought  that  I  ought  to  run 
and  see  how  she  was.' 

Struck  by  the  reasonableness  of  this  answer,  Kate 
for  the  moment  remained  silent,  but  a  sudden  remem- 
brance forced  the  anger  that  was  latent  in  her  to  her 
head,  and  facing  him  again  she  said: 

'  How  dare  you  tell  me  such  a  lie !  You  know  very 
well  you  went  to  see  her  because  you  like  her,  because 
you  love  her.' 

Dick  looked  at  her,  surprised. 


252  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  I  assure  you,  you're  mistaken/  he  said.  But  at  that 
moment  Bret  passed  them  in  the  street,  hurrying  to- 
wards Leslie's.  The  meeting  was  an  unfortunate  one, 
and  it  sent  a  deeper  pang  of  jealousy  to  Kate's  heart. 

'  There,'  she  said,  '  haven't  I  proof  of  your  baseness  ? 
What  do  you  say  to  that?' 

*  To  what?' 

'  Don't  pretend  innocence.  Didn't  you  see  Bret  pass- 
ing? You  choose  your  time  nicely  to  pay  visits — just 
when  he  should  be  out.' 

'  Oh !'  said  Dick,  surprised  at  the  ingenuity  of  the 
deduction.  '  I  give  you  my  word  that  such  an  idea 
never  occurred  to  me.' 

But  before  he  could  get  any  further  with  his  expla- 
nation Kate  again  cut  him  short,  and  in  passionate 
words  told  him  he  was  a  monster  and  a  villain.  So 
taken  aback  was  he  by  this  sudden  manifestation  of 
temper  on  the  part  of  one  in  whom  he  did  not  suspect 
its  existence,  that  he  stopped,  to  assure  himself  that  she 
was  not  joking.  A  glance  sufficed  to  convince  him;  and 
making  frequent  little  halts  between  the  lamp-posts  to 
argue  the  different  points  more  definitely,  they  pro- 
ceeded home  quarrelling.  But  on  arriving  at  the  door 
Kate  experienced  a  moment  of  revolt  that  surprised 
herself.  The  palms  of  her  hands  itched,  and  consumed 
with  a  childish  desire  to  scratch  and  beat  this  big  man, 
she  beat  her  little  feet  against  the  pavement.  Dick 
fumbled  at  the  lock.  The  delay  still  further  irritated 
her,  and  it  seemed  impossible  that  she  could  enter  the 
house  that  night. 

'Aren't  you  coming  in?'  he  said  at  last. 

'  No,  not  I.  You  go  back  to  Miss  Leslie ;  I'm  sure 
she  wants  you  to  attend  to  her  ankle.' 

This  was  too  absurd,  and  Dick  expostulated  gently. 
But  nothing  he  could  say  was  of  the  slightest  avail,  and 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  253 

she  refused  to  move  from  the  doorstep.  Then  began  a 
long  argument;  and  in  brief  phrases,  amid  frequent  in- 
terruptions, all  sorts  of  things  were  discussed.  The 
wind  blew  very  cold;  Kate  did  not  seem  to  notice  it,  but 
Dick  shivered  in  his  fat;  and  noticing  his  trembling  she 
taunted  him  with  it,  and  insultingly  advised  him  to  go 
to  bed.  Not  knowing  what  answer  to  give  to  this,  he 
walked  into  the  sitting-room  and  sat  down  by  the  fire. 
How  long  would  she  remain  on  the  doorstep?  he  asked 
himself  humbly,  until  his  reflections  were  interrupted 
by  the  sound  of  steps.  It  was  Montgomery,  and  chuck- 
ling, Dick  listened  to  him  reasoning  with  Kate.  The 
cold  was  so  intense  that  the  discussion  could  not  be  con- 
tinued for  long;  and  when  the  two  friends  entered  Dick 
was  prepared  for  a  reconciliation.  But  in  this  he  was 
disappointed.  She  merely  consented  to  sit  in  the  arm- 
chair, glaring  at  her  lover.  Montgomery  tried  to  argue 
with  her,  but  he  could  scarcely  succeed  in  getting  her 
to  answer  him,  and  it  was  not  until  he  began  to  question 
Dick  on  the  reason  of  the  quarrel  that  she  consented  to 
speak;  and  then  her  utterances  were  rather  passionate 
denials  of  her  lover's  statements  than  any  distinct  ex- 
planation. There  were  also  long  silences,  during  which 
she  sat  savagely  picking  at  the  paper  of  the  bouquet, 
which  she  still  retained.  At  last  Montgomery,  noticing 
the  supper  that  no  one  cared  to  touch,  said: 

'  Well,  all  I  know  is,  that  it's  very  unfortunate  that 
you  should  have  chosen  this  night,  of  all  others,  the 
night  of  her  success,  to  have  a  row.  I  expected  a  pleas- 
ant evening.' 

'  Success,  indeed !'  said  Kate,  starting  to  her  feet. 
'  Was  it  for  such  a  success  as  this  that  he  took  me  away 
from  my  home  ?  Oh,  what  a  fool  I  was  !  Success  !  A  lot 
I  care  for  success,  when  he  has  been  spending  the  even- 
ing with  Leslie.'  And  unable  to  contain  herself  any 


254  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

longer,  she  tore  a  handful  of  flowers  out  of  her  bouquet 
and  threw  them  in  Dick's  face.  Handful  succeeded 
handful,  each  heing  accompanied  by  a  shower  of  vehe- 
ment words.  The  two  men  waited  in  wonderment,  and 
when  passionate  reproaches  and  spring  flowers  were 
alike  exhausted,  a  flood  of  tears  and  a  rush  into  the  next 
room  ended  the  scene. 


XVII 

As  soon  as  it  was  announced  that  Miss  Leslie  suffered 
so  much  with  her  ankle  that  she  would  be  unable  to 
travel,  the  whole  company  called  to  see  the  poor  in- 
valid; the  chorus  left  their  names,  the  principals  went 
up  to  sit  by  the  sofa  side,  and  all  brought  her  some- 
thing: Beaumont,  a  basket  of  fruit;  Dolly  Goddard,  a 
bouquet  of  flowers;  Dubois,  an  interesting  novel;  Mor- 
timer, a  fresh  stock  of  anecdotes.  Around  her  sofa 
sprains  were  discussed.  Dubois  had  known  a  premiere 
danseuse  at  the  Opera  House,  in  Paris,  but  the  handing 
round  of  cigarettes  prevented  his  story  from  being 
heard,  and  Beaumont  related  instead  how  Lord  Shore- 
ham  in  youth  had  broken  his  legs  out  hunting.  The 
relation  might  not  have  come  to  an  end  that  evening 
if  Leslie  had  not  asked  Bret  to  change  her  position  on 
the  sofa,  and  when  he  and  Dick  went  out  of  the  room  a 
look  of  inquiry  was  passed  round. 

'  You  needn't  be  uneasy.  I  wouldn't  let  Bret  stop 
for  anything.  I  shall  be  very  comfortable  here.  My 
landlady  is  as  kind  as  she  can  be  and  the  rooms  are 
very  nice.' 

A  murmur  of  approval  followed  these  words,  and 
continuing,  Miss  Leslie  said,  laying  her  hand  on  Kate's: 

'  And  my  friend  here  will  play  my  parts  until  I  come 
back.  You  must  begin  to-night,  my  dear,  and  try  to 

255 


256  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

work  up  Clairette.  If  you're  a  quick  study  you  may  be 
able  to  play  it  on  Wednesday  night.' 

This  was  too  much;  the  tears  stood  in  Kate's  eyes. 
She  had  in  her  pocket  a  little  gold  porte-bonheur  which 
she  had  bought  that  morning  to  make  a  present  of  to 
her  once  hated  rival,  but  she  waited  until  they  were 
alone  to  slip  it  on  the  good-natured  prima  donna's 
wrist.  The  parting  between  the  two  women  was  very 
touching,  and  being  in  a  melting  mood  Kate  made  a  full 
confession  of  her  quarrel  with  Dick,  and,  abandoning 
herself,  she  sought  for  consolation.  Leslie  smiled  curi- 
ously, and  after  a  long  pause  said: 

'  I  know  what  you  mean,  dear,  I've  been  jealous 
myself;  but  you'll  get  over  it,  and  learn  to  take  things 
easily  as  I  do.  Men  aren't  worth  it.'  The  last  phrase 
seemed  to  have  slipped  from  her  inadvertently,  and  see- 
ing how  she  had  shocked  Kate  she  hastened  to  add, 
'  Dick  is  a  very  good  fellow,  and  will  look  after  you ; 
but  take  my  advice,  avoid  a  row;  we  women  don't  gain 
anything  by  it.' 

The  words  dwelt  long  in  Kate's  mind,  but  she  found 
it  hard  to  keep  her  temper.  Her  temper  surprised  even 
herself.  It  seemed  to  be  giving  way,  and  she  trembled 
with  rage  at  things  that  before  would  not  have  stirred 
an  unquiet  thought  in  her  mind.  Remembrances  of  the 
passions  that  used  to  convulse  her  when  a  child  returned 
to  her.  As  is  generally  the  case,  there  was  right  on 
both  sides.  Her  life,  it  must  be  confessed,  was  woven 
about  with  temptations.  Dick's  character  easily  engen- 
dered suspicion,  and  when  the  study  of  the  part  of 
Clairette  was  over,  the  iron  of  distrust  began  again  to 
force  its  way  into  her  heart.  The  slightest  thing  suf- 
ficed to  arouse  her.  On  one  occasion,  when  travelling 
from  Bath  to  Wolverhampton,  she  could  not  help  think- 
ing, judging  from  the  expression  of  the  girl's  face,  that 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  257 

Dick  was  squeezing  Dolly's  foot  under  the  rug;  without 
a  word  she  moved  to  the  other  end  of  the  carriage  and 
remained  looking  out  of  the  window  for  the  rest  of  the 
journey.  Another  time  she  was  seized  with  a  fit  of  mad 
rage  at  seeing  Dick  dancing  with  Beaumont  at  the  end 
of  the  second  act  of  Madame  Angot.  There  were  floods 
of  tears  and  a  distinct  refusal  '  to  dress  with  that 
woman.'  Dick  was  in  despair!  What  could  he  do? 
There  was  no  spare  room,  and  unless  she  went  to  dress 
with  the  chorus  he  didn't  know  what  she'd  do. 

'  My  God !'  he  exclaimed  to  Mortimer,  as  he  rushed 
across  the  stage  after  the  '  damned  property-man/ 
'  never  have  your  woman  playing  in  the  same  theatre 
as  yourself;  it's  awful!' 

For  the  last  couple  of  weeks  everything  he  did 
seemed  to  be  wrong.  Success,  instead  of  satisfying 
Kate,  seemed  to  render  her  more  irritable,  and  instead 
of  contenting  herself  with  the  plaudits  that  were  nightly 
showered  upon  her,  her  constant  occupation  was  to  find 
out  either  where  Dick  was  or  what  he  had  been  doing 
or  saying.  If  he  went  up  to  make  a  change  without 
telling  her  she  would  invent  some  excuse  for  sending  to 
inquire  after  him ;  if  he  were  giving  some  directions  to 
the  girls  at  one  of  the  top  entrances,  she  would  walk 
from  the  wing  where  she  was  waiting  for  her  cue  to  ask 
him  what  he  was  saying.  This  watchfulness  caused  a 
great  deal  of  merriment  in  the  theatre,  and  in  the  dress- 
ing-rooms Mortimer's  imitation  of  the  catechism  the 
manager  was  put  to  at  night  was  considered  very 
amusing. 

'  My  dear,  I  assure  you  you're  mistaken.  I  only 
smoked  two  cigarettes  after  lunch,  and  then  I  had  a 
glass  of  beer.  I  swear  I'm  concealing  nothing  from 
you.' 

And  this  is  scarcely  a  parody  of  the  strict  surveil- 


258  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

lance  under  which  Dick  lived,  but  from  a  mixture  of 
lassitude  and  good  nature  it  did  not  seem  to  annoy  him 
too  much,  and  he  appeared  to  be  most  troubled  when 
Kate  murmured  that  she  was  tired,  that  she  hated  the 
profession  and  would  like  to  go  and  live  in  the  country. 
For  now  she  complained  of  fatigue  and  weariness;  the 
society  of  those  who  formed  her  life  no  longer  inter- 
ested her,  and  she  took  violent  and  unreasoning  antipa- 
thies. It  was  not  infrequent  for  Mortimer  and  Mont- 
gomery to  make  an  arrangement  to  grub  with  the  Len- 
noxes whenever  a  landlady  could  be  discovered  who 
would  undertake  so  much  cooking.  But  without  being 
able  to  explain  why,  Kate  declared  she  could  not  abide 
sitting  face  to  face  with  the  heavy  lead.  She  saw  and 
heard  quite  enough  of  him  at  the  theatre  without  being 
bothered  by  him  in  the  day-time.  Dick  made  no  objec- 
tion. Indeed,  he  confessed  willingly  that  he  was  a  bit 
tired  of  disconnected  remarks,  and  the  wit  of  irrelevan- 
cies;  and  Mortimer  fell  to  sulking  if  you  didn't  laugh 
at  his  jokes.  Montgomery  still  continued  to  board  with 
them,  and  although  he  and  Kate  did  not  always  manage 
to  hit  it  off  they  managed  to  rub  along  without  much 
friction.  Love  helped  him  to  bear  with  a  good  deal  of 
pettishness,  and  Dick  regarded  him  as  a  sort  of  break- 
water, over  and  against  which  a  great  deal  of  unpleas- 
antness rippled  harmlessly  away.  Dubois  was  asked  to 
take  Mortimer's  place,  and  the  natty  appearance  of  the 
little  foreigner  was  a  welcome  change  after  Mortimer's 
draggled  show  of  genius.  He  could  do  everything  bet- 
ter than  anybody  else,  but  that  did  not  matter,  for  he 
was  amusing  in  his  relations.  Whether  you  spoke  of 
Balzac's  position  in  modern  fiction  or  the  rolling  of 
cigarettes,  you  were  certain  to  be  interrupted  with,  '  I 
assure  you,  my  dear  fellow,  you're  mistaken,'  uttered 
in  a  stentorian  voice.  On  the  subject  of  his  bass  voice 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  259 

a  child  could  draw  him  out,  and,  under  the  pretext  of 
instituting  a  comparison  between  him  and  one  of  the 
bass  choristers,  Montgomery  never  failed  to  induce  him 
to  give  the  company  an  idea  of  his  register.  At  first  to 
see  the  little  man  settling  the  double  chin  into  his  chest 
in  his  efforts  to  get  at  the  low  D  used  to  convulse  Kate 
with  laughter,  but  after  a  time  even  this  grew  monot- 
onous, and  wearily  she  begged  Montgomery  to  leave  him 
alone.  '  Nothing  seems  to  amuse  you  now/  he  would 
say  with  a  mingled  look  of  affection  and  regret.  A 
shrug  of  the  shoulder  she  considered  a  sufficient  answer 
for  him,  and  she  would  sink  back  as  if  pursuing  to  its 
furthest  consequences  the  train  of  some  far-reaching 
ideas. 

And  in  wonder  these  men  watched  the  progress  of 
Kate's  malady  without  ever  suspecting  what  was  really 
the  matter  with  her.  She  was  homesick.  But  not  for 
the  house  in  Hanley  and  the  dressmaking  of  yore.  She 
had  come  to  look  upon  Hanley,  Ralph,  and  Mrs.  Ede, 
the  apprentices  and  Render  as  a  bygone  dream,  to 
which  she  could  not  return  and  did  not  wish  to  return. 
Her  homesickness  was  not  to  go  back  to  the  point  from 
which  she  had  started,  but  to  settle  down  in  a  house 
for  a  while. 

'  Not  for  long,  Dick,*  she  said,  '  a  month ;  even  a  fort- 
night would  make  all  the  difference.  We  spent  a  fort- 
night at  Blackpool,  but  we  have  never  stayed  a  fort- 
night at  the  same  place  since/ 

'  I  know  what's  the  matter  with  you,  Kate,'  he  an- 
swered ;  '  you  want  a  holiday ;  so  do  I ;  we  all  want  a 
holiday.  One  of  these  days  we  shall  get  one  when  the 
tour  comes  to  an  end.' 

It  did  not  seem  to  Kate  that  the  tour  would  ever  come 
to  an  end:  she  would  always  be  going  round  like  a 
wheel. 


260  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

Dick  begged  her  to  have  patience,  and  she  resolved 
to  have  patience,  but  one  Saturday  night  in  the  middle 
of  her  packing  the  vision  of  the  long  railway  journey 
that  awaited  her  on  the  morrow  rose  up  suddenly  in  her 
mind  and  she  could  not  do  else  than  spring  to  her  feet, 
and  standing  over  the  half-filled  trunk  she  said: 

'  Dick,  I  cannot,  I  cannot,  don't  ask  me.' 

'  Ask  you  what  ?'  he  said. 

'  To  go  to  Bath  with  you  to-morrow  morning,'  she 
answered. 

'  You  won't  come  to  Bath,'  he  cried.  '  But  who  will 
play  Clairette?' 

'  I  will,  of  course.' 

'  I   don't  understand,  Kate/  Dick  replied. 

'  I  only  want  one  day  off.  Why  shouldn't  I  spend 
the  Sunday  in  Leamington  and  go  to  church?  I  want 
a  little  rest.  I  can't  help  it,  Dick/ 

'  Well,  I  never !  You  seem  to  get  more  and  more 
capricious  every  day.' 

'  Then  you  won't  let  me  ?'  said  Kate,  with  a  flush  flow- 
ing through  her  olive  cheeks. 

'  Won't  let  you !  Why  shouldn't  you  stay  if  it  pleases 
you,  dear?  Montgomery  is  staying,  too;  he  wants  to 
see  an  aunt  of  his  who  lives  in  the  town.' 

Dick's  unaffected  kindness  so  touched  Kate's  sensi- 
bilities that  the  .tears  welled  up  into  her  eyes,  and  she 
flung  herself  into  his  arms  sobbing  hysterically.  For 
the  moment  she  was  very  happy,  and  she  looked  into  the 
dream  of  the  long  day  she  was  going  to  spend  with 
Montgomery,  afraid  lest  some  untoward  incident  might 
rob  her  of  her  happiness.  But  nothing  fell  out  to  blot 
her  hopes,  everything  seemed  to  be  happening  just  as 
she  had  foreseen  it,  and  trembling  with  pleasurable  ex- 
citement the  twain  hurried  through  the  town  enquiring 
out  the  way  to  the  Wesleyan  Church.  At  last  it  was 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  261 

found  in  a  distant  suburb  and  her  emotion  almost  from 
the  moment  she  entered  into  the  peace  of  the  building 
became  so  uncontrollable  that  to  hide  the  tears  upon 
her  cheeks  she  was  forced  to  bury  her  face  in  her  hands, 
and  in  the  soft  snoring  of  the  organ,  recollections  of 
her  life  frothed  up;  but  as  the  psalm  proceeded  her  ex- 
citement abated,  until  at  last  it  subsided  into  a  state  of 
languid  ecstasy.  Nor  was  it  till  the  congregation  knelt 
down  with  one  accord  for  the  extemporary  prayer  that 
she  asked  pardon  for  her  sins.  '  But  how  could  God 
forgive  her  her  sins  if  she  persevered  in  them?'  she 
asked  herself.  '  How  could  she  leave  Dick  and  return 
to  Hanley?  Her  husband  would  not  receive  her;  her 
life  had  got  into  a  tangle  and  might  never  get  straight 
again.  But  all  is  in  the  hands  of  God,'  and  thinking 
of  the  woman  that  had  been  and  the  woman  that  was, 
she  prayed  God  to  consider  her  mercifully.  '  God  will 
understand,'  she  said,  '  how  it  all  came  about,  I  cannot.' 
Montgomery  was  kneeling  in  the  pew  beside  her,  and 
he  wondered  at  seeing  her  so  absorbed  in  prayer;  he 
did  not  know  that  she  was  so  pious,  and  thought  that 
such  piety  as  hers  was  not  in  accord  with  the  life  she 
had  taken  up  and  the  company  with  which  they  were 
touring.  '  But  perhaps  it  was  a  mere  passing  emotion, 
a  sudden  recrudescence  of  her  past  life  which  would 
fade  away  and  never  return  again;'  he  hoped  that  this 
was  the  case,  for  he  believed  in  her  talent,  and  that  a 
London  success  awaited  her.  He  kept  his  eyes  averted 
from  her  knowing  that  his  observation  would  distress 
her,  and  after  church  she  said  she  would  like  to  go  for 
a  walk  and  he  suggested  the  river.  In  the  shade  of 
spreading  trees  they  watched  the  boats  passing.  In  the 
course  of  the  afternoon  they  talked  of  many  things  and 
of  many  people,  and  it  pleased  and  surprised  them  to 
find  that  their  ideas  coincided,  and  in  the  pauses  of  the 


262  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

conversation  they  wondered  why  they  had  never  spoken 
to  each  other  like  this  before.  He  was  often  tempted  to 
hold  out  prospects  of  a  London  success  with  a  view  to 
cheering  her,  but  he  felt  that  this  was  not  the  moment 
to  do  so.  But  she,  being  a  little  less  tactful,  spoke  to 
him  of  his  music  with  a  view  to  pleasing  him,  but  he 
could  not  detach  his  thoughts  from  her,  and  could  only 
tell  her  that  he  heard  her  voice  in  the  music  as  he  com- 
posed it. 

'  The  afternoon  is  passing/  he  said ;  '  it's  time  to  be- 
gin thinking  of  tea.'  Whereupon  they  rose  to  their  feet 
and  walked  a  long  way  into  the  country  in  seach  of  an 
inn,  and  finding  one  they  had  tea  in  a  garden,  and 
afterwards  they  dined  in  a  sanded  parlour  and  enjoyed 
the  cold  beef,  although  they  could  not  disguise  from 
themselves  the  fact  that  it  was  a  little  tough.  But  what 
matter  the  food?  It  was  the  close  intimacy  and  atmos- 
phere of  the  day  that  mattered  to  them,  and  they  re- 
turned to  Leamington  thinking  of  the  day  that  had 
gone  by,  a  day  unique  in  their  experience,  one  that 
might  never  return  to  them. 

The  ways  were  filled  with  Sunday  strollers — mothers 
leading  a  tired  child  moved  steadily  forward ;  a  drunken 
man  staggered  over  a  heap  of  stones;  sweethearts 
chased  each  other;  occasionally  a  girl,  kissed  from  be- 
hind as  she  stretched  to  reach  a  honeysuckle,  rent  the 
airless  evening  with  a  scream. 

Kate  had  not  spoken  for  a  long  while,  and  Mont- 
gomery's apprehensions  were  awakened.  Of  what  could 
she  be  thinking;  'something  was  on  her  mind,'  he  said 
to  himself.  '  Something  had  been  on  her  mind  all  day/ 
he  continued,  and  he  began  to  ask  himself  if  he  should 
put  his  arm  around  her  and  beg  of  her  to  confide  in 
him.  He  would  have  done  so  if  the  striking  of  a  clock 
had  not  reminded  him  that  they  had  little  time  before 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  263 

them  if  they  wished  to  catch  the  train,  so  instead  of 
asking  her  to  confide  in  him  he  asked  her  to  try  to  walk 
a  little  faster.  She  was  tired.  He  offered  her  his  arm. 

'  We've  j  ust  time  to  get  to  the  station  and  no  more ; 
it's  lucky  we  have  our  tickets.' 

The  guard  on  the  platform  begged  them  to  hasten 
and  to  get  in  anywhere  they  could.  A  moment  after- 
wards, they  jumped  into  the  carriage,  and  the  train 
rolled  with  a  slight  oscillating  motion  out  of  the  station 
into  the  open  country.  Dim  masses  of  trees,  inter- 
rupted by  spires  and  roofs,  were  painted  upon  a  huge 
orange  sky  and  somehow  reminded  them  of  an  opera 
bouffe. 

'  What  are  you  crying  for  ?'  Montgomery  asked, 
bending  forward. 

'  Oh,  I  don't  know ! — nothing,'  exclaimed  Kate,  sob- 
bing; 'but  I'm  very  unhappy.  I  know  I've  been  very 
wicked,  and  am  sure  to  be  punished  for  it.' 

'  Nonsense !  Nonsense !' 

'  God  will  punish  me — I  know  He  will.  I  felt  it  all  to- 
day in  church.  I'm  done  for,  I'm  done  for.' 

'  You've  made  a  success  on  the  stage.  I  never  saw 
anyone  get  on  so  well  in  so  short  a  time;  and  you're 
loved,'  he  added  with  a  certain  bitterness,  '  as  much  as 
any  woman  could  be.' 

'  That's  what  you  think,  but  I  know  better.  I  see 
him  flirting  every  day  with  different  girls.' 

'  You  imagine  those  things.  Dick  couldn't  speak 
roughly  to  anyone  if  he  tried;  but  he  doesn't  care  for 
any  woman  but  you.' 

'  Of  course,  you  say  so.    You're  his  friend.' 

'I  assure  you  'pon  my  word  of  honour;  I  wouldn't 
tell  you  so  if  it  weren't   true.      You're  my   friend   as 
much  as  he,  aren't  you?'  and  then,  as  if  afraid  that  she 
should  read  his  thoughts,  he  added: 
18 


264  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  I'm  sure  he  hasn't  kissed  anyone  since  he  knew  you. 
I  can't  put  it  plainer  than  that,  can  I?' 

'  I'm  glad  to  hear  you  say  so.  I  don't  think  you'd 
tell  me  a  lie;  it  would  be  too  cruel,  wouldn't  it?  For 
you  know  what  a  position  I  am  in:  if  Dick  were  to 
desert  me  to-morrow  what  should  I  do?' 

'  You're  in  a  mournful  humour.  Why  should  Dick 
desert  you?  And  even  if  he  did  I  don't  see  that  it 
would  be  such  an  awful  fate.' 

Startled,  Kate  raised  her  eyes  suddenly  and  looked 
him  straight  in  the  face. 

'  What  do  you  mean  ?'  she  said. 

The  abruptness  of  her  question  made  him  hesitate. 
In  a  swift  instant  he  regretted  having  risked  himself 
so  far,  and  reproached  himself  for  being  false  to  his 
friend;  but  the  temptation  was  irresistible,  and  over- 
come by  the  tenderness  of  the  day,  and  irritated  by  the 
memory  of  years  of  vain  longing,  he  said: 

'  Even  if  he  did  desert  you,  you  might,  you  would, 
find  somebody  better — somebody  who'd  marry  you.' 

Kate  did  not  answer  and  they  sat  listening  to  the  rat- 
tle of  the  train.  At  last  she  said: 

'  I  could  never  marry  anyone  but  Dick/ 

'  Why  ?     Do  you  love  him  so  much  ?' 

'  Yes,  I  love  him  better  than  anything  in  the  world ; 
but  even  if  I  didn't  there  are  reasons  which  would  pre- 
vent my  marrying  anyone  but  him.' 

'  What  reasons  ?' 

A  desire  that  someone  should  know  of  her  trouble 
smothered  all  other  considerations,  and  after  another 
attempt  to  speak  she  again  dropped  into  silence. 

Montgomery  tried  to  rouse  her :  '  Tell  me,'  he  said, 
'  tell  me,  why  you  couldn't  marry  anyone  but  Dick.' 

The  sound  of  his  voice  startled  her,  and  then,  in  a 
moment  of  sudden  naturalness,  she  answered: 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  265 

'  Because  I'm  in  the  family  way.' 

'  Then  there's  nothing  else  for  him  to  do  but  to  marry 
you.' 

She  knew  he  was  at  that  moment  his  own  proper  exe- 
cutioner, but  the  intensity  of  her  own  feelings  did  not 
leave  her  time  for  pity. 

Why  after  all  shouldn't  she  marry  Dick?  Why  hadn't 
she  asked  for  this  reparation  before  ?  '  I  dare  say 
you're  right,'  she  said.  '  When  I  tell  him ' 

'  What!  haven't  you  told  him  yet?'  Montgomery  cried. 

'  No,  Kate  answered  timidly,  '  I  was  afraid  he 
wouldn't  care  to  hear  it.' 

'  Then  you  must  do  so  at  once,'  Montgomery  said, 
and  the  poor  vagrant  musician,  whom  nobody  had  ever 
loved,  said :  '  I  will  speak  to  him  about  it  the  first  time 
I  get  a  chance.  It  would  be  wicked  of  him  not  to.  He 
couldn't  refuse  even  if  he  didn't  love  you,  which  he 
does.' 

The  last  streak  of  yellow  had  died  out  of  the  sky, 
telling  of  the  day  that  had  gone  by,  and  in  a  deep  tran- 
quillity of  mind  Kate  inhaled  the  sweetness  of  her  luck 
as  a  convalescent  might  a  bunch  of  freshly  culled 
violets. 


XVIII 

IT  never  rains  but  it  pours.  She  was  called  before  the 
curtain  after  every  act  in  Madame  Angot  and  Les 
Cloches  de  Corneville,  and  Dick  told  her  that  she  would 
cut  out  all  the  London  prima  donnas,  giving  them  the 
go-by,  and  establish  herself  one  of  the  great  Metropoli- 
tan favourites  if  he  could  get  a  new  work  over  from 
France. 

'  Why  a  new  work  ?'  she  asked,  and  he  told  her  that 
to  draw  the  attention  of  the  critics  and  the  public  upon 
her,  she  must  appear  in  a  new  title  role,  and  sitting  in 
his  armchair  when  they  came  home  from  the  theatre  at 
night,  he  brooded  many  projects,  the  principal  one  of 
which  was  to  obtain  a  new  work  from  France.  But 
which  of  the  three  illustrious  composers,  Herve,  Offen- 
bach and  Lecocq,  should  he  choose  to  write  the  music? 
The  book  of  words  would  have  to  be  written  before  the 
music  was  composed,  and  so  far  as  he  knew  the  only 
French  composer  who  could  set  English  words  was 
Herve. 

It  seemed  to  Kate  that  he  never  would  cease  to  draw 
forth  a  cigarette  case,  or  to  cross  and  uncross  his  legs. 
Did  this  man  never  wish  to  go  to  bed?  She  hated  stop- 
ping up  after  one  o'clock  in  the  morning.  But,  anxious 
to  be  a  serviceable  companion  to  him  on  all  occasions, 
she  strove  against  her  sleepiness  and  listened  to  him 

266 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  267 

whilst  he  considered  whether  her  voice  was  heard  to 
most  advantage  in  Offenbach  or  in  Herve.  She  had  not 
yet  played  the  Grande  Duchesse,  and  there  were  parts 
in  that  opera  that  would  suit  her  very  well.  He  would 
like  to  see  her  in  La  Belle  Helene,  and  the  Princess  of 
Trebizond,  but  the  last-named  opera  was  never  a  suc- 
cess in  England,  and  he  was  not  certain  about  the  power 
of  La  Perichole  to  draw  audiences  in  the  provinces. 

It  was  pleasant  to  Kate  to  hear  her  talent  discussed, 
analyzed,  set  forth  in  the  works  of  great  men,  but  her 
thought  had  now  turned  from  her  artistic  career  to  her 
domestic.  She  wanted  to  be  married. 

It  had  always  been  vaguely  understood  that  they 
were  to  be  married,  that  is  to  say,  it  had  been  taken  for 
granted  that  when  a  fitting  occasion  presented  itself 
they  would  render  their  cohabitation  legal.  This  under- 
standing had  satisfied  her  till  now.  In  the  first  months, 
in  the  first  year  after  the  escape  from  Hanley,  her  hap- 
piness had  been  so  great  that  she  had  not  had  a  thought 
of  pressing  matters  further.  She  had  feared  to  do  any- 
thing lest  she  might  destroy  her  happiness  by  doing  so, 
and  Dick,  who  let  everything  slide  until  necessity  forced 
him  to  take  steps,  had  not  troubled  himself  about  his 
marriage,  although  quite  convinced  that  he  would  end 
by  marrying  Kate.  He  had  treated  his  marriage  ex- 
actly as  he  did  his  theatrical  speculations. 

'  There  is  no  hurry/  he  answered  her  and  proposed 
that  they  should  be  married  in  London. 

'  But  why  in  London  ?  ' 

He  spoke  of  his  relations  and  his  friends.  He  would 
like  Kate  to  know  his  old  mother. 

'  But,  Dick,  dear,  why  not  at  once  ?  We're  living 
in  a  life  of  sin  and  at  times  the  thought  of  the  sin 
makes  me  miserable.' 

Out  of  his  animal  repose  Dick  smiled  at  the  religious 


268  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

argument,  and  being  on  the  watch  always  for  a  sneer, 
the  blood  rushed  to  her  face  instantly  and  she  ex- 
claimed : 

'  If  you  did  seduce  me,  if  you  did  drag  me  away  from 
iny  peaceful  home,  if  you  did  make  a  travelling  actress 
of  me,  you  might  at  least  refrain  from  insulting  my  re- 
ligion.' 

Dick  looked  up  surprised.  Kate  had  put  down  her 
knife  and  fork  and  was  pouring  herself  out  a  large  glass 
of  sherry.  She  was  evidently  going  to  work  herself  up 
into  one  of  her  rages. 

'  I  assure  you,  my  dear,  I  never  intended  to  insult 
your  religion,  and  I  wish  you  wouldn't  drink  all  that 
wine,  it  only  excites  you.' 

'  Excites  me !  What  does  it  matter  to  you  if  I  ex- 
cite myself  or  not?  ' 

'  My  dear  Kate,  this  is  very  foolish  of  you.  I  don't 
see  why — if  you'll  only  listen  to  reason ' 

'  Listen  to  reason ! '  she  said,  spilling  the  sherry  over 
the  table,  '  ah !  it  would  have  been  better  if  I'd  never 
listened  to  you.' 

'  You  really  mustn't  drink  any  more  wine ;  I  can't  al- 
low it,'  said  Dick,  passing  his  arm  across  her  and  trying 
to  take  away  the  decanter. 

This  was  the  climax,  and  her  pretty  face  curiously 
twisted,  she  screamed  as  she  struggled  away  from  him: 

'  Leave  me  go,  will  you !  leave  me  go !  Oh !  I  hate 
you ! '  Then  clenching  her  teeth,  and  more  savagely, 
'  No,  I'll  not  be  touched !  No !  no !  no !  I  will  not ! ' 

Dick  was  so  astonished  at  this  burst  of  passion  that 
he  loosed  for  a  moment  the  arms  he  was  holding,  and 
profiting  by  the  opportunity  Kate  seized  him  by  the 
frizzly  hair  with  one  hand  and  dragged  the  nails  of  the 
other  down  his  face. 

At  this  moment  Montgomery  entered ;  he  stood  aghast, 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  269 

and  Kate,  whose  anger  had  now  expended  itself,  burst 
into  a  violent  fit  of  weeping. 

'  What  does  this  mean  ?  '  Montgomery  said,  speaking 
very  slowly. 

Neither  answered.  The  man  sought  for  words;  the 
woman  walked  about  the  room  swinging  herself;  and 
as  she  passed  before  him  Montgomery  stopped  her  and 
begged  for  an  explanation.  She  gave  him  a  swift  look 
of  grief,  and  breaking  away  from  him,  shut  herself  in 
the  bedroom. 

'  What  does  this  mean  ?  ' 

Dick  looked  round  vaguely,  astonished  at  the  authori- 
tative way  the  question  was  put,  but  without  inquiring 
he  answered: 

'  That's  what  I  want  to  know.  I  never  saw  anything 
like  it  in  my  life.  We  were  speaking  of  being  married, 
when  suddenly  Kate  accused  me  of  insulting  her  re- 
ligion, and  then — well,  I  don't  remember  any  more.  She 
fell  into  such  a  passion — you  saw  it  yourself.' 

'  Did  you  say  you  wouldn't  marry  her  ?  ' 

'  No,  on  the  contrary.  I  can't  make  it  out.  For  the 
last  month  her  caprices,  fancies,  and  jealousies  have 
been  something  awful ! ' 

Montgomery  made  a  movement  as  if  he  were  going 
to  reply,  but  checking  himself,  he  remained  silent. 
His  face  then  assumed  the  settled  appearance  of  one 
who  is  inwardly  examining  the  different  sides  of  a  com- 
plex question.  At  last  he  said: 

'  Let's  come  out  for  a  walk,  Dick,  and  we'll  talk  the 
matter  over.' 

'  Do  you  think  I  can  leave  her  ?  ' 

'  It's  the  best  thing  you  can  do.  Leave  her  to  have 
her  cry  out/  and  adopting  the  suggestion,  Dick  picked 
up  his  hat,  and  without  further  words  the  men  went  out 
of  the  house,  walking  slowly  arm  in  arm, 


270  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  I  cannot  understand  what  is  the  matter  with  Kate. 
When  I  knew  her  first  she  hadn't  a  bad  temper.' 

To  this  Montgomery  made  no  answer.  He  was  think- 
ing. 

After  a  pause  Dick  continued,  as  if  speaking  to  him- 
self: 

'  And  the  way  she  does  badger  me  with  her  confounded 
jealousies;  I'm  afraid  now  to  tell  a  girl  to  move  up 
higher  on  the  stage.  There  are  explanations  about  every- 
thing, and  I  can't  think  what  it's  all  about.  She  has 
everything  she  requires.  She  hasn't  been  a  year  on  the 
stage,  and  she's  playing  leading  parts,  and  scoring  suc- 
cesses too.' 

'  Perhaps  she  has  reasons  you  don't  know  of." 

'  Reasons  I  don't  know  of?     What  do  you  mean?  ' 

'  Well,  you  haven't  told  me  yet  what  the  row  was 
about.' 

'Tell  you!  That's  just  what  I  want  to  know  my- 
self.' 

'  What  were  you  speaking  about  when  it  began  ? ' 
asked  Montgomery,  who  was  still  feeling  his  way. 

'  About  our  marriage.' 

'  Well,  what  did  you  say  ?  ' 

'  What  did  I  say  ?  I  really  don't  remember ;  the  row 
has  put  it  all  out  of  my  head.  Let  me  think.  I  was  say- 
ing— I  mean  she  was  asking  me  when  we  should  be 
married.' 

'  And  what  did  you  say  to  that  ?  Did  you  fix  a 
day  ?  ' 

'  Fix  a  day ! '  said  Dick,  looking  in  astonishment  at 
his  friend.  '  How  could  I  fix  a  day?  ' 

'  I  think  if  I  loved  a  woman  and  she  loved  me  I 
could  manage  somehow  to  fix  a  day.' 

These  words  were  spoken  with  an  earnestness  that 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  271 

attracted  Dick's  attention,  and  he  looked  inquiringly  at 
the  young  man. 

'  So  you  think  I  ought  to  marry  her  ?  ' 

'  Think  you  ought  to  marry  her  ?  '  exclaimed  Mont- 
gomery indignantly ;  '  really,  Dick,  I  didn't  think  you 

were Just  remember  what  she's  given  up  for  you. 

You  owe  it  to  her.  Good  heavens ! ' 

'  Well,  you  needn't  get  into  a  passion ;  I've  had  enough 
of  passions  for  one  day/ 

The  impetuousness  of  the  youth  had  struck  through 
the  fat  nonchalance  of  the  man,  and  he  said  after  a 
pause : 

'  Yes,  I  suppose  I  do  owe  it  to  her.' 

The  apologetic,  easy-going  air  with  which  this  phrase 
was  spoken  maddened  Montgomery;  he  could  have  struck 
his  friend  full  in  the  face,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  woman 
he  was  obliged  to  keep  his  temper. 

'  Putting  aside  the  question  of  what  you  owe  and 
what  you  don't  owe,  I'd  like  to  ask  you  where  you 
could  find  a  nicer  wife?  She's  the  prettiest  woman 
in  the  company,  she's  making  now  five  pounds  a  week, 
and  she  loves  you  as  well  as  ever  a  woman  loved  a  man. 
I  should  like  to  know  what  more  you  want.' 

This  was  very  agreeable  to  hear,  and  after  a  mo- 
ment's reflection  Dick  said: 

'  That's  quite  true,  my  boy,  and  I  like  her  better  than 
any  other  woman.  I  don't  think  I  could  get  anything 
better.  If  it  weren't  for  that  infernal  jealousy  of  hers. 
Really,  her  temper  is  no  joke.' 

'  Her  temper  is  all  right ;  she  was  as  quiet  as  a  mouse 
when  you  knew  her  first.  Take  my  word  for  it,  there  are 
excellent  reasons  for  her  being  a  bit  put  out.' 

'  What  do  you  mean  ?  ' 

'  Can't  you  guess  ?  ' 

The  two  men  stopped  and  looked  each  other  full  in 


272  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

the  face,  and  then  resuming  his  walk,  Montgomery 
said: 

'  Yes,  it's  so ;  she  told  me  in  the  train  coming  up  from 
Leamington.' 

Tears  glittered  in  Dick's  eyes,  and  he  became  in  that 
moment  all  pity,  kindness,  and  good-nature. 

'  Oh,  the  poor  dear !  Why  didn't  she  tell  me  that 
before?  And  I'd  scolded  her  for  ill-temper.' 

His  humanity  was  as  large  as  his  fat,  and  although 
he  had  never  thought  of  the  joys  of  paternity,  now,  in 
the  warmth  of  his  sentiments,  he  melted  into  one  feel- 
ing of  rapture.  After  a  pause,  he  said: 

'  I  think  I'd  better  go  back  and  see  her.' 

'  Yes,  I  think  you'd  better  fix  a  day  for  your  mar- 
riage.' 

'  Of  course.' 

Nothing  further  was  said;  each  absorbed  in  different 
thoughts  the  two  men  retraced  their  steps,  and  when 
they  arrived  at  the  door,  Montgomery  said: 

'  I  think  I'd  better  wish  you  good-bye.' 

'  No,  come  in,  old  man,  she'd  like  to  see  you.' 

And  as  if  anxious  to  torture  himself  to  the  last,  Mont- 
gomery entered.  Kate  was  still  locked  in  the  bedroom, 
but  there  was  such  an  unmistakable  accent  of  trepida- 
tion and  anxiety  in  Dick's  fingers  and  voice  that  she 
opened  immediately.  Her  beautiful  black  hair  was  un- 
done, and  fell  in  rich  masses  about  her.  Dick  took 
her  in  his  arms,  and  held  her  sobbing  on  his  shoulder. 
All  he  could  say  was,  'Oh,  my  darling,  I'm  so  sorry; 
you  will  forgive  me,  won't  you  ? ' 


XIX 


'WELL,  what  are  you  going  to  give  her?  Do  you  see 
anything  you  like  here  ?  ' 

'  Do  you  think  that  paper-cutter  would  do  ?  ' 

'  You  can't  give  anything  more  suitable,  ma'am.  Then 
there  are  these  card-cases;  nobody  could  fail  to  like 
them.' 

'  What  are  you  going  to  give,  Annie  ? ' 

'  Oh,  I'm  going  to  give  her  the  pair  of  earrings  we 
saw  yesterday;  but  if  I  were  you  I  wouldn't  spend 
more  than  half  a  sovereign:  it's  quite  enough.' 

'  I  should  think  so  indeed — a  third  of  a  week's 
screw,'  whispered  Dolly,  '  but  she  ain't  a  bad  one,  and 
Dick  will  like  it,  and  may  give  me  a  line  or  so  in  Oli- 
vette. How  do  you  think  she'll  do  in  the  part  ?  ' 

'  We'll  talk  about  that  another  time.  Are  you  going 
to  buy  the  paper-cutter  ?  ' 

Casting  her  eyes  in  despair  around  the  walls  of  the 
fancy-goods  shop  to  see  if  she  could  find  anything  she 
liked  better,  Dolly  decided  in  favour  of  the  paper-cut- 
ter and  paid  the  money  after  a  feeble  attempt  at  bar- 
gaining. 

In  the  street  they  saw  Mortimer,  who  had  now  al- 
lowed his  hair  to  grow  in  long,  snake-like  curls  com- 
pletely over  his  shoulders. 

'  For  goodness'  sake  come  away,'  cried  Beaumont,  '  I 

873 


274  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

do  hate  speaking  to  him  in  the  street,  everybody  stares 
so.' 

The  girls  turned  to  fly,  but  the  heavy  lead  was  upon 
them,  and  in  his  most  nasal  tones  said : 

'  Well,  my  dear  young  ladies,  engaged  in  the  charm- 
ing occupation  of  buying  nuptial  gifts  ? ' 

'  How  very  sharp  you  are,  Mr.  Mortimer/  answered 
Dolly  in  her  pertest  manner ;  '  and  what  are  you  go- 
ing to  give?  We  should  so  much  like  to  know.' 

After  a  moment's  hesitation  he  said,  throwing  up 
his  chin  after  the  manner  of  a  model  sitting  for  a  head 
of  Christ: 

'  My  dear  young  lady,  you  must  not  exhibit  your  curi- 
osity in  that  way ;  it's  not  modest.' 

'  But  do  tell  us,  Mr.  Mortimer ;  you're  a  person  of  such 
good  taste/ 

The  comic  tragedian  considered  for  a  moment  what  he 
could  say  most  ill-natured  and  so  get  himself  out  of 
his  difficulty. 

'  I  tell  you,  young  lady,  I'm  not  decided,  but  I  think 
that  a  copy  of  Wesley's  hymns  bound  up  with  the  book 
of  the  Grande  Duchesse  might  not  be  inappropriate.' 

'  But  how  do  you  think  she'll  play  the  Countess  ?  ' 
asked  Beaumont. 

'  Oh,  we  mustn't  speak  of  that  now  she's  going  to  be 
married,'  and,  thinking  he  could  not  better  this  last 
remark,  Mortimer  bade  the  ladies  good-bye  and  went 
off  with  curls  and  coat-tails  alike  swinging  in  the  breeze. 
Farther  up  the  street  Beaumont  and  Dolly  were  joined 
by  Leslie,  Bret,  and  Dubois,  and  the  same  topics  were 
again  discussed.  '  What  are  you  going  to  give?  '  '  Have 
you  bought  your  present  ? '  'Have  you  seen  mine  ?  ' 
'  Do  you  know  who's  going  to  be  at  the  wedding  break- 
fast? They  can't  ask  more  than  a  dozen  or  so.'  '  Have 
you  heard  that  the  chorus  have  clubbed  together  to  buy 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  275 

Dick  a  chain?'  'It's  very  good  of  them,  but  they'll 
feel  hurt  at  not  being  asked  to  the  breakfast.'  '  What 
will  the  Lennoxes  do  ?  '  These  and  a  hundred  other 
questions  of  a  similar  sort  had  been  asked  in  the  dress- 
ing-rooms, in  the  wings,  in  the  streets  at  every  available 
moment  since  Morton  and  Cox's  opera  bouffe  company 
had  arrived  in  Liverpool.  Everybody  professed  to  con- 
sider the  event  the  happiest  and  most  fortunate  that 
could  have  happened,  but  Mortimer's  words,  '  There's 
many  a  slip  between  the  ring  and  the  finger,'  recurred 
to  them  whenever  the  conversation  came  to  a  pause,  and 
they  hoped  the  marriage  might  yet  be  averted,  even 
when  they  stood  one  bright  summer  morning  assembled 
on  the  stage,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  bride  and 
bridegroom.  The  name  of  the  church  had  been  kept  a 
secret,  and  all  that  was  known  was  that  Leslie — who  had 
joined  another  company  in  Liverpool — Bret,  Montgom- 
ery, and  Beaumont  had  gone  to  attend  as  witnesses,  and 
that  they  would  be  back  at  the  theatre  at  twelve  to  run 
through  the  third  act  of  Olivette  before  producing  it  that 
night. 

Many  false  alarms  were  given,  but  when  at  last  the 
bridal  party  walked  from  the  wings  on  to  the  stage, 
Dick's  appearance  provoked  a  little  good-natured  laugh- 
ter, so  respectable  did  he  look  in  a  spick  and  span  new 
frock-coat,  and  his  tall  hat.  Kate  never  looked  prettier; 
Mortimer  said  her  own  husband  wouldn't  know  her. 

She  wore  a  dark  green  silk  pleated  down  the  front, 
from  underneath  which  a  patent-leather  boot  peeped 
as  she  walked;  a  short  jacket  showed  the  drawing 
of  her  shoulders,  the  delicacy  of  her  waist,  and  the 
graceful  fall  of  the  hips.  She  carried  in  her  hand  a 
bouquet  of  yellow  and  pink  roses,  a  present  from  Mont- 
gomery. 

'  Now,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  won't  detain  you  long, 


276  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

but  do  let  us  run  through  the  third  act,  so  as  to  have  it 
right  for  the  night.  Montgomery,  will  you  oblige  me 
by  playing  over  that  sailor-chorus  ? ' 

Dick  took  the  girls  in  sections  and  placed  them  in 
the  positions  he  desired  them  to  hold. 

'  Now,  then ;  enter  the  Countess.  Who's  in  love  with 
the  Countess  ?  ' 

'  Well,  if  you  don't  know,  I  don't  know  who  does/ 
said  Mortimer.  '  I  hear  you've  been  swearing  all  the 
morning  "till  death  do  us  part."  ' 

A  good  deal  of  laughter  greeted  this  pleasantry  and 
Dick  himself  could  not  refrain  from  joining  in.  At 
last  he  said: 

'  Now,  Kate,  dear,  do  leave  off  laughing  and  run 
through  your  song.' 

'  I — I — can't — can't;    you — you — are — t-t-too    funny.' 

'  We  shall  never  get  through  this  act,'  said  Dick, 
who  had  just  caught  Miss  Leslie  walking  off  with  Bret 
into  the  green-room.  Now,  Miss  Leslie,  can't  you  wait 
until  this  rehearsal  is  over  ? ' 

'  They'll  be  late  for  church  to-day;  they  may  as  well 
wait.' 

Another  roar  of  laughter  followed  this  remark,  and 
Kate  said: 

'  You'd  better  give  it  up,  Dick,  dear ;  it  will  be  all 
right  at  night.  I  assure  you  I  shall  be  perfect  in  my 
music  and  words.' 

'  I  must  go  through  the  act.  The  principals  are  re- 
sponsible for  themselves,  but  I  must  look  to  the  chorus. 
Where's  that  damned  property-master  ?  ' 

On  the  subject  of  rehearsals  Dick  was  always  firm, 
and  seeing  that  it  could  not  be  shirked,  the  chorus  pulled 
themselves  together,  and  the  act  was  run  through  some- 
how. Then  a  few  more  invitations  were  whispered  in 
the  corners  on  the  sly,  and  the  party  in  couples  and 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  277 

groups  repaired  to  the  Lennoxes'  lodgings.  Mortimer, 
Beaumont,  Dick,  and  Kate  walked  together,  talking  of 
the  night's  show.  Dubois  crushed  his  bishop's  hat  over 
his  eyes,  straddled  his  ostler-like  legs,  and  discussed 
Wagner's  position  in  music  with  Montgomery  and  Dolly 
Goddard.  A  baronet's  grandson,  a  chorus  singer,  told 
how  his  ancestor  had  won  the  Goodwood  Cup  half  a 
century  ago,  to  three  ladies  in  the  same  position  in  the 
theatre  as  himself.  Bret  and  Leslie  followed  very  slow- 
ly, apparently  more  than  ever  enchanted  with  each  other. 

For  the  wedding  breakfast,  the  obliging  landlady  had 
given  up  her  own  rooms  on  the  ground-floor.  The  table 
extended  from  the  fireplace  to  the  cabinet,  the  panels 
of  which  Mortimer  was  respectfully  requested  not  to 
break  when  he  was  invited  to  take  the  foot  of  the  table 
and  help  the  cold  salmon.  The  bride  and  bridegroom 
took  the  head,  and  the  soup  was  placed  before  them;  for 
this  was  not,  as  Dick  explained,  a  breakfast  served  by 
Gunter,  but  a  dinner  suitable  to  people  who  had  been 
engaged  for  some  time  back.  At  this  joke  no  one 
knew  if  they  should  laugh  or  not,  and  Mortimer  slyly  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  the  company  to  Bret  and  Leslie, 
who  were  examining  the  cake. 

Then  all  spoke  at  once  of  the  presents.  They  were 
of  all  sorts,  and  had  come  from  different  parts  of  the 
country.  Mr.  Cox  had  given  a  large  diamond  ring. 
Leslie  had  presented  Kate  with  a  handsome  inkstand. 
Bret  had  bought  her  a  small  gold  bracelet.  Dubois, 
whose  fancies  were  light,  offered  a  fan;  Beaumont,  a 
pair  of  earrings;  Hayes,  a  cigarette  case;  Dolly  God- 
dard, a  paper-knife;  Montgomery,  a  brooch  which  must 
have  cost  him  at  least  a  month's  salary.  Mortimer  ex- 
claimed that  his  wife  had  been  behaving  rather  badly 
lately,  and  that  in  consequence  he  had  been  unable  to 
obtain  from  her — what  he  had  not  been  able  to  obtain 


278  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

Dick  did  not  stop  to  listen  to.  At  that  moment  the 
gold  chain,  the  present  from  the  chorus,  caught  his  eye. 
The  kindness  of  the  girls  seemed  to  affect  him  deeply, 
and,  interrupting  Kate,  who  was  thanking  her  friends 
for  all  their  tokens  of  good-will,  he  said: 

'  I  must  really  thank  the  ladies  of  the  chorus  for 
the  very  handsome  present  they  made  me.  How  sorry 
I  am  that  they  are  not  all  here  to  receive  my  thanks 
I  cannot  say;  but  those  who  are  here  will,  I  hope,  ex- 
plain to  their  comrades  how  we  were  pressed  for  space.' 

'  One  would  think  you  were  refusing  a  free  admission,' 
snarled  Mortimer. 

'  What  a  bore  that  fellow  is,'  whispered  Dick  to  Mr. 
Cox,  the  proprietor  of  the  company,  who  had  come 
down  from  London  to  arrange  some  business  with  his 
manager. 

'  I'm  sure,  Mr.  Lennox,  we  were  only  too  glad  to  be 
able  to  give  you  something  to  show  you  how  much  we 
appreciate  your  kindness,'  said  a  tall  girl,  speaking  in 
the  name  of  the  chorus. 

'  We  must  have  some  fizz  after  the  show  to-night  on 
the  stage.  What  do  you  think,  Cox  ?  '  said  Dick.  '  And 
then  I  shall  be  able  to  express  my  thanks  to  everyone/ 

'  And  we  must  have  a  dance,'  cried  Leslie.  '  My  foot 
is  all  right  now.' 

Chairs  had  to  be  fetched  in  from  the  bedroom  and 
even  from  the  kitchen  to  seat  the  fifteen  people  who 
had  been  invited.  The  ladies  did  not  like  sitting  to- 
gether and  the  supply  of  gentlemen  was  not  sufficient; 
drawbacks  that  were  forgotten  when  the  first  few  spoon- 
fuls of  soup  had  been  eaten  and  the  sherry  tasted.  The 
women  examined  Mr.  Cox  with  looks  of  deep  inquiry, 
but  his  face  told  them  nothing;  it  was  grave  and  com- 
mercial, and  he  spoke  little  to  anyone  except  Kate  and 
her  husband.  The  baronet's  son  sat  in  the  middle  of 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  279 

the  table  with  the  three  chorus  girls,  whom  he  continued 
to  pester  with  calculations  as  to  how  much  he  would  be 
worth,  but  for  his  ancestor's  ambition  to  win  the  Derby 
with  Scotch  Coast.  Leslie  and  Bret  were  on  the  other 
side  of  the  wedding  cake,  and  they  leant  towards  each 
other  with  a  thousand  little  amorous  movements.  Beau- 
mont spoke  of  the  evening's  performance,  putting  ques- 
tions to  Montgomery  with  a  view  to  attracting  Mr.  Cox's 
attention. 

'  Do  you  think,  Mr.  Montgomery,  that  to  take  an  en- 
core for  my  song  will  interfere  with  the  piece  ?  ' 

'  I  never  heard  of  a  lady  putting  the  piece  before  her- 
self,' said  Montgomery,  with  a  loud  laugh,  for  he,  too, 
was  anxious  to  attract  Mr.  Cox's  attention,  and  availing 
himself  of  Miss  Beaumont's  question  as  a  '  lead  up,'  he 
said,  '  I  hope  that  when  my  opera  is  produced  I  shall 
find  artists  who  will  look  as  carefully  after  my  inter- 
ests.' 

'  But  when  will  you  have  your  opera  ready  ?  '  Kate 
asked. 

'  My  opera  ?  '  he  said,  as  soon  as  she  averted  the  brown 
eyes  that  burnt  into  his  soul.  '  It's  all  finished.  It's 
ready  to  put  on  the  stage  when  Dick  likes.' 

The  ruse  proved  successful,  for  Mr.  Cox,  bending 
forward,  said  in  an  interested  voice: 

'  May  I  ask  what  is  the  subject  of  your  opera,  Mr. 
Montgomery  ? ' 

This  was  charming,  and  the  musician  at  once  pro- 
ceeded to  enter  into  a  complicated  explanation,  to  which 
frequent  allusion  was  made  to  a  king,  a  band  of  con- 
spirators, a  neighbouring  prince,  a  beautiful  daughter 
unfortunately  in  love  with  a  shepherd,  and  a  treacherous 
minister.  Beaumont  listened  wearily,  and,  seeing  that 
no  mention  she  could  make  of  her  singing  would  avail 
her,  she  commenced  to  fidget  abstractedly  with  one  of 
19 


280  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

her  big  diamond  earrings.  In  the  meanwhile  Montgom- 
ery's difficulties  were  increasing.  To  follow  successfully 
the  somewhat  intricate  story  of  king,  conspirators,  and 
amorous  shepherd  a  sustained  effort  of  attention  was 
necessary,  and  this  Dick,  Kate,  and  Mr.  Cox  found  it  dif- 
ficult to  grant;  for  in  the  middle  of  a  somewhat  involved 
bit — in  which  it  was  not  quite  clear  whether  the  king 
or  the  minister  had  entered  disguised — the  landlady 
would  beg  to  be  excused — if  they  would  just  make  a 
little  way,  so  that  she  might  remove  the  soup. 

This  lady,  in  her  Sunday  cap,  assisted  by  the  maid- 
of-all-work,  from  whose  canvas-grained  hands  soap  and 
water  had  not  been  able  to  extract  the  dirt,  strove  to 
lift  large  dishes  of  food  over  the  heads  of  the  com- 
pany. There  was  a  sirloin  of  beef  that  had  to  be  placed 
before  Mortimer.  Then  came  two  pairs  of  chickens,  the 
carving  of  which  Dick  had  taken  upon  himself.  A  piece 
of  bacon  with  cabbage,  and  a  pigeon  pie,  adorned  the 
sides  of  the  table.  The  cutlets  were  handed  round;  and 
for  some  time  conversation  gave  way  to  the  more  neces- 
sary occupation  of  eating.  Even  Bret  and  Leslie  left 
off  billing  and  cooing;  the  grandson  of  the  baronet,  for- 
getful of  hife  family's  misfortunes  on  the  turf,  dug  vigor- 
ously into  the  pigeon-pie  and  liberally  distributed  it.  The 
clattering  of  knives  and  forks  swelled  into  a  sustained 
sound,  which  was  only  broken  by  observations  such  as 
'  Thanks,  Mr.  Lennox,  anything  that's  handy — a  leg,  if 
you  please.'  '  May  I  ask  you,  Montgomery,  for  a  slice 
of  bacon  ?  No  cabbage,  thank  you.'  '  Mr.  Mortimer,  a 
little  more  and  some  gravy;  that'll  do  nicely.' 

It  was  not  until  the  first  helping  had  been  put  away, 
and  eyes  began  to  wander  in  search  of  what  would  be 
best  to  go  on  with,  that  conversation  was  resumed.  To 
Mortimer,  who  had  had  a  good  deal  of  trouble  with 
the  beef,  Dick  said,  '  I  hope  you  are  satisfied  with  your 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  281 

part,  Mortimer,  and  that  we  shall  have  some  good  roars. 
The  piece  ought  to  go  with  a  scream.' 

'  I  think  I  shall  knock  'em  this  time,  old  boy/  said 
the  comic  man,  drawling  his  words  slowly  through  his 
nose.  '  It  pretty  well  killed  me  when  I  read  it  over  to 
myself,  so  I  don't  know  what  it  will  be  when  I  spit  it 
out  at  them.' 

This  was  deemed  unnecessarily  coarse,  and  for  a  mo- 
ment it  was  feared  that  Mortimer  was  as  drunk  as  Mr. 
Hayes,  whose  eyes  were  now  beginning  to  blink  pathet- 
ically. He  awoke  up,  however,  with  a  start  and  a  smile 
when  the  first  champagne  cork  went  off,  and  holding  out 
his  glass,  said,  '  Shall  be  very  glad  to  drink  your  health, 
a  wedding  only  comes  once  in  a  lifetime.' 

Mortimer  tried  to  turn  the  embarrassing  pause  that 
followed  this  remark  to  his  profit.  The  beef  having 
kept  him  silent  during  the  early  part  of  the  dinner,  he 
resolved  now  to  prove  what  a  humorist  he  was,  and  by 
raising  his  voice  he  strove  to  attract  the  attention  of  the 
company  to  himself.  This,  however,  was  not  easily  done. 
Dubois  had  begun  to  pinch  the  backside  of  the  canvas- 
handed  maid,  who  was  lifting  a  plate  of  custards  over 
his  head;  but  these  frivolities  did  not  prevent  him  from 
discussing  Carlyle's  place  in  English  literature  with  the 
baronet's  son  on  his  left,  and  arguing  from  time  to  time 
with  Montgomery  on  his  right  against  certain  effects 
employed  by  Wagner  in  his  orchestration.  Kate  laid 
down  her  spoon  and  stared  vaguely  into  space  and  again 
laid  her  hand  on  Dick's. 

The  past  seemed  now  to  be  completely  blotted  out. 
What  more  could  she  desire?  She  would  go  on  acting, 
and  Dick  would  continue  to  love  her.  By  some  special 
interposition  of  Providence  all  the  hazards  of  existence 
over  which  she  might  have  fallen  had  been  swept  aside. 
What  broader  road  could  a  woman  hope  to  walk  in  than 


282  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

the  one  that  lay  before  her  in  all  its  clear  and  bland 
serenity?  God  had  been  good  to  her!  and  He  was 
going  to  be  good  to  her.  What  a  tie  the  child  would  be. 
what  an  influence,  what  a  source  of  future  happiness ! 
They  would  work  for  their  child;  a  boy  or  girl,  which? 
Would  it  not  give  them  courage  to  work?  Would  it  not 
give  them  strength  to  live?  It  would  be  something  to 
hope  for.  Oh,  how  good  God  had  been  to  her;  and  how 
wicked  she  had  been  to  Him!  Her  heart  filled  with  a 
fervour  of  faith  she  had  never  felt  before;  and  facing 
the  gracious  future  which  a  child  and  husband  promised 
her,  she  offered  up  thanksgivings  for  her  happiness,  which 
she  accepted  as  eternal,  so  inherent  did  it  seem  in  herself. 

'Oh,  just  look  at  him!'  said  Kate,  waking  up  with 
a  start  for  her  reveries.  '  How  can  he  make  such  a 
beast  of  himself?' 

'  Don't  take  any  notice  of  him,  dear ;  that's  the  best 
way.' 

But  Mortimer,  who  had  been  vainly  struggling  for 
the  last  five  minutes  to  draw  Beaumont  from  the  mem- 
ory of  a  lord,  Dubois  from  his  Wagnerian  argument, 
and  Bret  and  Leslie  from  their  flirtation,  now  seized  on 
poor  Hayes's  drunkenness  as  a  net  wherein  he  could 
capture  everybody.  Raising  his  voice  so  as  to  ensure 
silence,  he  said,  addressing  himself  to  Mr.  Cox  at  the 
other  end  of  the  table,  '  How  very  affecting  he  is  now, 
how  severely  natural;  the  innocence  of  a  young  girl  in 
her  teens  is  not,  to  my  mind,  nearly  so  touching  as  that 
of  a  boozer  in  his  cups.  Have  you  ever  heard  how  he 
fancied  the  waiter  was  calling  him  in  the  morning  when 
the  policeman  was  hauling  him  off  to  the  station?' 

Mr.  Cox  had  not  heard;  and  the  whole  story  of  how 
they  bumped  in  the  hotel  door  at  Derby  had  to  be  gone 
through.  Having  thus  got  the  company  by  the  ear, 
Mortimer  showed  for  a  long  time  no  signs  of  letting 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  283 

them  go.  He  went  straight  through  his  whole  reper- 
toire. He  told  of  a  man  who  wanted  to  post  a  letter, 
but  not  being  able  to  find  the  letter-box,  he  applied  to 
a  policeman.  The  bobby  showed  him  something  red  in 
the  distance,  and  explained  that  that  was  the  post. 
'  Keep  the  red  in  your  eye,  my  boy/  said  the  drunkard ; 
and  this  he  did  until  he  found  himself  in  a  public-house 
trying  to  force  his  letter  down  a  soldier's  collar.  He 
had  mistaken  the  red  coat  for  the  pillar.  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  story  of  a  man  who  apologized  to  the  trees 
in  St.  James's  Park,  and  explained  to  them  that  he  had 
come  from  a  little  bachelor's  party,  until  he  at  last  sat 
down  saying,  '  This  is  no  good ;  I  mus-mush  wait  till  the 
bloody  pro-prochession  has  passed.'  A  heavy  diges- 
tive indifference  to  everything  was  written  on  each  coun- 
tenance; and  in  the  slanting  rays  of  the  setting  sun  the 
curling  smoke  vapours  assumed  the  bluest  tints.  Odours 
of  spirits  trailed  along  the  tablecloth.  Disconnected 
fragments  of  conversation,  heard  against  the  uninter- 
rupted murmur  of  Mortimer's  story-telling,  struck  the 
ear.  The  baronet's  son  was  now  explaining  to  his  three 
ladies  that  no  woman  could  expect  to  get  on  in  life  un- 
less she  were  very  immoral  or  very  rich;  Dubois  argued 
across  the  table  with  Leslie  and  Bret  concerning  the 
production  of  the  voice:  Beaumont  cast  luminous  and 
provoking  glances  at  Mr.  Cox  and  tried  to  engage  him 
in  conversation  regarding  the  inartistic  methods  of  most 
stage  managers  in  arranging  the  processions. 
'  Dick,  dear,  the  cake  hasn't  yet  been  cut.' 
'  No  more  it  hasn't,'  Dick  answered,  and  when  the 
white-sugared  emblem  of  love  and  fidelity  was  dis- 
tributed, the  wedding  party  awoke  to  a  burst  of  enthu- 
siasm. Everyone  suggested  something,  and  much 
whiskey  and  water  was  spilt  on  the  tablecloth. 

But  matters,   although  they  were  advanced  a  stage, 


284  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

did  not  seem  to  be  much  expedited.  The  bride's  health 
had  to  be  drunk,  and  Dick  had  to  return  thanks.  He 
did  not  say  very  much,  but  his  remarks  concerning  Oli- 
vette suggested  a  good  deal  of  comment.  Mortimer 
took  a  different  view  of  the  question,  and  Dubois  ex- 
plained at  length  how  the  piece  had  been  done  in 
France.  Leslie  insisted  that  Bret  should  say  some- 
thing; and  once  on  his  legs,  to  the  surprise  of  every- 
body, the  silent  tenor  became  surprisingly  garrulous. 

It  was  Kate,  however,  who  first  guessed  the  reason 
of  Montgomery's  despondency,  and  in  pity  for  him,  she 
made  a  sign  to  the  ladies,  and  the  room  was  left  to  the 
flat  chests  and  tweed  coats.  Montgomery  prayed  that 
this  after-dinner  interval  would  not  prove  a  long  one, 
for  he  dreaded  the  smutty  stories.  The  baronet's  son 
sprang  off  with  a  clear  lead,  watched  by  Mortimer  and 
Dubois.  In  the  way  of  anecdotes  these  two  would  have 
been  rivals  had  it  not  been  for  the  latter's  fancy  for 
more  serious  discussions.  Still  in  the  invention  and  col- 
lection of  the  most  atrocious,  they  both  employed  the 
energy  and  patience  of  the  entomologist.  A  chance 
word,  out  of  which  a  racy  story  might  be  extracted,  was 
pursued  like  a  rare  moth  or  a  butterfly.  Dubois's  were 
more  subtle,  but  Mortimer's,  being  more  to  the  point, 
were  more  generally  effective. 

They  waited  eagerly  for  the  baronet's  son  to  con- 
clude, and  he  had  hardly  pronounced  the  last  phrase 
when  Mortimer,  coming  with  a  rush,  took  the  lead  with 

'  That  reminds  me  of '  Dubois  looked  discomfited, 

and  settled  himself  down  to  waiting  for  another  chance. 
This,  however,  did  not  come  just  at  once;  Mortimer 
told  six  stories,  each  nastier  than  the  last.  Everybody 
was  in  roars  except  Montgomery  and  Dubois;  whilst 
one  thought  of  his  opera,  the  other  searched  his  memory 
for  something  that  would  out-Mortimer  Mortimer.  This 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  285 

was  difficult,  but  when  his  turn  came  he  surprised  the 
company.  Mr.  Cox  leaned  over  the  table  with  a  glass 
of  whiskey  and  water  in  his  hand  declaring  that  he  had 
never  spent  so  pleasant  a  day  in  his  life:  and  thus  en- 
couraged, Dubois  was  just  beginning  to  launch  out  into 
the  intricacies  of  a  fresh  tale  when  Montgomery,  beside 
himself  with  despair,  said  to  Dick: 

'  It  was  arranged  that  I  should  play  the  music  of  my 
new  opera  over  to  Mr.  Cox.  If  you  don't  put  a  stop  to 
this  it  will  go  on  for  ever.' 

'  Yes,  my  boy,  it's  getting  a  bit  long,  isn't  it:  just  let 
Dubois  finish  and  we'll  go  upstairs.' 

The  story  proved  a  weary  one;  but  like  a  long  rail- 
way journey  it  at  last  drew  to  an  end,  and  they  went 
upstairs.  There  they  found  the  ladies  yawning  and 
looking  at  the  presents.  Kate  ran  to  Dick  to  ask  him 
to  arrange  about  the  music,  but  Beaumont  had  been  a 
little  before  her  and  had  taken  Mr.  Cox  out  on  the  bal- 
cony. Bret  was  not  in  the  room;  Leslie  did  not  know 
the  music,  and  in  the  face  of  so  many  difficulties,  Dick's 
attention  soon  began  to  wander,  and  Kate  was  left  to 
console  the  disappointed  musician.  Once  or  twice  she 
attempted  to  renew  the  subject,  but  was  told  that  they 
were  all  going  down  to  the  theatre  in  half  an  hour,  and 
that  it  had  better  be  put  off  to  another  time. 

Montgomery  made  no  answer,  but  he  could  not  cast 
off  the  bitter  and  malignant  thought  that  haunted  him, 
'  I'm  as  unfortunate  in  art  as  in  love.' 


XX 


THE  ebb  of  the  company's  prosperity  dated  from  Kate's 
marriage.  Somehow  things  did  not  seem  to  go  well 
after.  In  the  first  place  the  production  of  Olivette  was 
not  a  success.  Mortimer  was  drunk,  did  not  know  his 
words,  and  went  '  fluffing  all  over  the  shop.'  Kate,  ex- 
cited with  champagne  and  compliments,  sang  the  wrong 
music  on  one  occasion;  and  to  complete  their  misfor- 
tunes, the  Liverpool  public  did  not  in  the  least  tumble 
to  Miss  Beaumont's  rendering  of  the  part  of  the  heroine. 
The  gallery  thought  she  was  too  fat,  the  papers  said 
she  was  not  sprightly  enough,  and  on  Wednesday  night 
the  old  Cloches  had  to  be  put  up.  By  this  failure  the 
management  sustained  a  heavy  loss.  They  had  laid  out 
a  lot  of  money  on  dresses,  property  and  scenery,  all  of 
which  were  now  useless  to  them;  and  the  other  two 
operas  were  beginning  to  droop  and  lose  their  drawing 
power,  having  been  on  the  road  for  the  last  three  years. 
The  country,  too,  was  suffering  from  a  great  commer- 
cial crisis,  and  no  one  cared  to  go  to  the  theatre.  In 
many  of  the  towns  they  visited  strikes  were  on,  and  the 
people  were  convulsed  with  discussions,  projects  for  re- 
sistance, and  hopes  of  bettering  their  condition.  Great 
social  problems,  the  tyranny  of  capital,  and  such  like, 
occupied  the  minds  of  men,  and  there  was  naturally  lit- 
tle taste  for  the  laughing  nonchalance  of  La  Fille  de 

280 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  287 

Madame  Angot  or  the  fooling  of  the  Baillie  in  the 
Cloches.  As  forty  thousand  men  had  struck  work,  our 
band  of  travelling  actors  rolled  out  of  Leeds,  and  they 
left  it  bearing  with  them  only  a  reminiscence  of  empty 
benches,  and  street-corners  crowded  with  idling,  sullen- 
faced  men.  At  Newcastle  they  were  not  more  fortu- 
nate, at  Wigan  they  fared  even  worse,  and  at  Hull  it 
was  equally  bad.  Gaiety  seemed  to  have  fled  out  of  the 
North;  the  public-house  and  the  platform  drew  away 
the  pit  and  the  gallery;  the  frequenters  of  the  boxes  and 
dress-circle  remained  at  home,  to  talk  around  their  fire- 
sides of  their  jeopardized  fortunes.  When  the  workers 
grow  weary  of  work  a  hard  time  sets  in  for  the  sellers 
of  amusement,  and  the  fate  of  Morton  and  Cox's  Oper- 
atic Company  proved  no  exception  to  the  rule.  Money 
was  made  nowhere,  and  every  Friday  night  a  cheque 
for  five-and-twenty  pounds  had  to  be  sent  down  from 
London  to  make  up  the  deficit  in  the  salary  list.  Never- 
theless for  two  months  matters  went  on  very  smoothly. 
The  remembrance  of  large  profits  made  in  preceding 
years  was  still  fresh  in  the  minds  of  Messrs.  Morton 
and  Cox,  and  they  had  not  yet  begun  to  grumble;  but 
an  unintermittent  drain  of  twenty-five  to  forty  pounds 
a  week  keeps  a  man  from  his  sleep  at  night,  and  after 
a  big  failure  in  the  city,  in  which  Mr.  Cox  was  mulcted 
to  the  extent  of  a  couple  of  thousand  pounds,  he  wrote 
to  Dick  suggesting  that  he  had  better  look  out  for  an- 
other opera.  This  was  welcome  news  to  Montgomery; 
but  no  sooner  had  Dick  raised  him  to  the  seventh  heaven 
of  bliss,  than  he  had  to  knock  him  down  to  earth  again: 
a  letter  arrived  from  Mr.  Cox,  saying  that  no  opera  was 
to  be  put  up;  that  it  would  be  useless  to  try  anything 
new  in  such  bad  times;  they  had  better  try  to  reduce 
expenses  instead, 


288  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  Reduce  expenses?  How  are  we  to  reduce  expenses 
except  by  cutting  down  the  salaries?' 

'  I'm  sure  I  don't  know,'  said  Montgomery;  '  and  the 
expense  of  mounting  my  piece  would  be  very  slight.' 

Without  attempting  to  discuss  so  vain  a  question, 
Dick  said,  '  I  must  speak  to  Hayes.' 

But  Hayes  only  pulled  his  silky  whiskers,  blinked  his 
Chinese  eyes,  drank  three  glasses  of  whiskey,  and 
changed  the  position  of  his  black  bag  several  times,  and 
the  matter  was  scarcely  alluded  to  again  until  the  fol- 
lowing fortnight,  when  Dick  found  himself  forced  to 
write  to  Mr.  Cox  demanding  a  cheque  for  thirty-five 
pounds,  to  meet  Saturday's  treasury  and  the  current  ex- 
penses of  the  following  week.  The  cheque  arrived,  but 
the  letter  that  came  with  it  read  very  ominously  indeed. 
It  read  as  follows: 

'  DEAR  MR.  LENNOX, — I  enclose  you  the  required 
amount;  but  of  course  you  will  understand  that  this  can- 
not go  on.  I  intend  running  down  to  see  you  on  Tues- 
day evening.  Will  you  have  the  company  assembled  to 
meet  me  at  the  theatre,  as  I  have  an  important  expla- 
nation to  make  to  them.' 

Dick  had  too  much  experience  in  theatrical  specula- 
tions not  to  know  that  this  must  mean  either  a  reduc- 
tion of  salaries  or  a  break-up  of  the  tour;  but  as  two 
whole  days  still  stood  between  him  and  the  evil  hour, 
it  did  not  occur  to  him  to  give  the  matter  another 
thought,  and  it  was  not  until  they  returned  home  after 
the  theatre,  to  prepare  for  the  Sunday  journey,  that 
he  spoke  to  Kate  of  the  letter  he  had  received. 

Their  portmanteaus  were  spread  out  before  them,  and 
Kate  was  counting  her  petticoats  when  Dick  said: 

'  I'll  tell  you  what,  Kate,  I  shouldn't  be  surprised  if 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  289 

the  company  broke  up  shortly,  and  we  all  found  our- 
selves obliged  to  look  out  for  new  berths.' 

'What  do  you  mean?'  she  said,  with  a  startled  look 
on  her  face. 

'  Well,  only  that  I  think  that  Morton  and  Cox  are 
beginning  to  get  tired  of  losing  money.  As  you  know 
we've  been  doing  very  bad  business  lately,  and  I  think 
they'll  give  us  all  the  sack.' 

'  Give  us  all  the  sack !'  Kate  repeated. 

'  Yes,'  said  Dick,  pursuing  his  own  reflections.  '  I'm 
afraid  it's  so.  It's  a  deuced  bore,  for  we  were  very 
pleasant  together.  But  I  don't  think  I  showed  you  the 
letter  I  got  this  morning.  What's  the  matter,  dear?' 

Pale  as  the  petticoat  at  her  feet,  Kate  stood  with 
raised  eyebrows  and  hands  that  twitched  at  the  folds 
of  her  dress. 

'  Oh,  Dick !  what  shall  we  do  ?  We  shall  starve ;  we 
shan't  have  any  place  to  go  to!' 

'  Starve !'  said  Dick  in  astonishment.  '  Not  if  I  know 
it.  We  shall  easily  find  something  else  to  do.  Besides, 
I  don't  care  if  he  does  break  up  the  tour.  I  believe 
there's  a  good  bit  of  coin  to  be  made  out  of  the  pier 
theatre  at  Blackpool.  I've  been  thinking  of  it  for  some 
time — with  a  good  entertainment,  you  know;  and  then 
there's  the  drama  Harding  did  for  me — a  version  of 
Wilkie  Collins's  story — The  Yellow  Mask — devilish 
good  it  is,  too.  I  was  reading  it  the  other  day.  We 
might  take  a  company  out  with  it.  Let  me  see,  whom 
could  we  get  to  play  in  it?'  And,  sitting  over  his  port- 
manteau, the  actor  proceeded  to  cast  the  piece,  com- 
menting as  he  went  along  on  the  qualifications  of  the 
artists,  and  giving  verbal  sketches  of  the  characters  in 
the  play.  '  Beaumont  would  play  Virginie  first  rate, 
you  know — a  strong,  determined,  wicked  woman,  who 


290  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

stops  at  nothing.  I'd  like  to  play  the  father;  Mortimer 
would  be  very  funny  as  the  uncle.  We'll  have  to  write 
in  something  for  you.  You  couldn't  take  the  sympa- 
thetic little  girl  yet;  you  haven't  had  enough  experi- 
ence.' 

The  expenses  of  scenery,  properties,  and  posting 
were  gone  into,  and  while  listening  to  the  different  esti- 
mates Kate  looked  at  her  husband  vaguely,  and  plunged 
in  a  sort  of  painful  wonderment,  asking  herself  how 
standing  on  the  brink  of  ruin  he  could  calmly  make 
plans  for  the  future.  But  to  the  actor,  whose  life  had 
never  run  for  a  year  without  getting  entangled  in  some 
difficult  knot  or  other,  the  present  hitch  did  not  give  the 
slightest  uneasiness.  A  strange  town  to  face  and  half 
a  crown  in  his  pocket  might  cause  him  some  temporary 
embarrassment,  but  a  hundred  pounds  at  the  bank,  and 
the  notoriety  of  having  been  for  two  years  the  manager 
of  a  travelling  company,  was  to  Dick  an  exceptionally 
brilliant  start  in  life,  and  it  did  not  occur  to  him  to 
doubt  that  he  would  hop  into  another  shop  as  good  as 
the  one  he  had  left.  But  as  the  woman  had  been  en- 
gaged in  none  of  these  anxious  battles  for  existence,  the 
news  of  a  threatened  break-up  of  her  world  fell  with  a 
cruel  shock  upon  her  and  she  experienced  in  an  aggra- 
vated form  the  same  dull  nervous  terror  from  which  she 
had  suffered  in  the  early  days  when  she  had  first  joined 
the  company,  but  then  the  full  tide  of  love  and  pros- 
perity bore  their  bark  along,  and  quieted  her  fears.  But 
now  in  the  first  puff  of  the  first  squall  she  saw  herself 
like  one  wrecked  and  floating  on  a  spar  in  a  wide  and 
unknown  sea  of  trouble.  Sitting  on  the  bed  where  she 
would  never  sleep  again,  she  watched  Dick  counting  on 
his  fingers  and  looking  dreamily  into  the  spaces  of  some 
impossible  future,  and  asked  herself  what  was  to  be- 
come of  them.  For  the  twentieth  time  since  she  had 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  291 

donned  them  the  robes  of  the  Bohemian  fell  from  her, 
and  she  became  again  in  instincts  and  tastes  a  middle- 
class  woman  longing  for  a  home,  a  fixed  and  tangible 
fireside  where  she  might  sit  in  the  evening  by  her  hus- 
band's side,  mending  his  shirts,  after  the  work  of  the 
day.  A  bitter  detestation  of  her  wandering  life  rose 
to  her  head,  and  she  longed  to  beg  of  her  husband  to 
give  up  theatricals,  and  try  to  find  some  other  employ- 
ment; and  the  next  day  it  appeared  to  her  more  than 
usually  sinful  to  drive  to  the  station  as  the  church  bells 
were  chiming,  spending  the  hours,  that  should  have  been 
passed  in  praying,  in  playing  '  nap,'  smoking  cigarettes, 
and  talking  of  wigs,  make-ups,  choruses,  and  such  like. 
But  apparently  there  was  no  help  for  it,  and  on  Mon- 
day night,  in  her  excitement,  increased  by  the  arrival 
of  Mr.  Cox,  she  could  not  help  getting  out  of  bed  to 
beseech  God  to  be  merciful  to  them;  her  husband's 
heavy  breathing  often  interrupted  her,  but  it  told  her 
that  he  was  her  husband,  and  that  was  her  only  conso- 
lation. 

It  astonished  her  that  he  could  sleep  as  he  did,  hav- 
ing in  front  of  him  the  terrible  to-morrow,  when  per- 
haps Mr.  Cox  would  cast  them  adrift;  and  she  trem- 
bled in  every  fibre  when  she  stood  on  the  stairs  leading 
to  the  manager's  room.  There  was  a  great  crowd,  the 
chorus-girls  wedged  themselves  into  a  solid  mass,  and 
murmured  good-mornings  to  each  other;  Mortimer  told 
a  long  story  from  the  top  step;  Dubois  tried  to  talk  of 
Balzac  to  Montgomery,  who  listened,  puzzled  and  inter- 
ested, fancying  it  was  a  question  of  a  libretto;  whilst 
Bret,  till  now  silent  as  the  dead,  suddenly  woke  up  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  would  probably  all  end  in  a  reduc- 
tion of  salaries.  At  last  Dick  appeared  and  called  them 
into  the  presence  of  Mr.  Cox.  Whiskey  and  water  was 
on  the  table,  and  with  the  silky  whiskers  plunged  in  the 


292  A   MUMMER'S   WIFE 

black  bag,  Mr.  Hayes  fumbled  aimlessly  with  many 
papers.  The  '  boss  '  looked  very  grave  and  twitched  at 
a  heavy  moustache;  and  when  they  were  all  grouped 
about  him,  in  his  deepest  and  most  earnest  tones,  he 
explained  his  misfortunes.  For  the  last  four  months  he 
had  been  forced  to  send  down  a  weekly  cheque  of  not 
less  than  five-and-twenty  pounds;  sometimes,  indeed, 
the  amount  had  run  up  to  forty  pounds.  This,  of  course, 
could  not  go  on  for  ever,  he  had  not  the  Bank  of  Eng- 
land behind  him.  But  talking  of  banks,  although  there 
was  no  reason  why  he  should  inflict  on  them  an  account 
of  his  bad  luck,  he  could  not  refrain  from  saying  that 
had  it  not  been  for  a  certain  bank  he  should  be  forced 
to  ask  them  to  accept  half  salaries.  The  words  brought 
a  flush  of  indignation  to  Beaumont's  cheeks.  She  made 
a  slight  movement,  as  if  she  were  going  to  repudiate 
the  suggestion  violently,  but  the  silence  of  those  around 
calmed  her,  and  she  contented  herself  with  murmuring 
to  Dolly: 

'  This  is  an  old  dodge.' 

'  I  will  leave  you  now/  said  Mr.  Cox,  '  to  consult 
among  yourselves  as  to  whether  you  will  accept  my  pro- 
posal, or  if  you  would  prefer  me  to  break  up  the  tour 
at  the  end  of  the  week,  and  pay  you  your  fares  back 
to  London.' 

As  Mr.  Cox  left  the  room  there  was  a  murmur  of  in- 
quiry from  the  chorus  ladies,  and  one  or  two  voices  were 
heard  above  the  rest  saying  that  they  did  not  know  how 
they  could  manage  on  less  than  five-and-twenty  shil- 
lings a  week.  These  objections  were  soon  silenced  by 
Dick,  who  in  a  persuasive  little  speech  explained  that 
the  reduction  of  salaries  applied  to  the  principals  only. 

'  Then  why  derange  these  ladies  and  gentlemen  by 
asking  them  to  attend  at  this  meeting?'  said  Mortimer. 

To  this   question   Dick  made  answer  by  telling  the 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  293 

ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  chorus  they  might  with- 
draw, and  the  discussion  was  resumed  by  those  whom 
it  concerned.  Beaumont  objected  to  everything.  Bret 
spoke  of  going  back  to  Liverpool.  Dubois  explained 
his  opinions  on  the  management  of  theatres  in  general, 
until  Dick  summoned  him  back  to  the  point.  Were  they 
or  were  they  not  going  to  accept  half  salaries?  At 
length  the  matter  was  decided  by  Mortimer  getting 
upon  a  chair  and  shouting  through  his  nose  as  through 
a  pipe: 

'  I  don't  know  if  you're  all  fond  of  hot  weather,  but 
if  you  are  you'll  find  it  to  your  taste  in  London ;  all  the 
theatres  are  closed,  and  the  cats  are  baking  on  the  tiles.' 

This  brought  the  argument  to  a  pause,  during  which 
Beaumont  remembered  that  grouse  were  shot  in  August, 
and  settling  her  diamonds  in  her  ears,  she  agreed  that 
the  tour  was  to  be  continued.  A  few  more  remarks  were 
made,  and  then  the  party  adjourned  to  a  neighbouring 
'  pub.'  to  talk  of  opera  bouffes  and  bad  business. 

The  next  places  they  visited  were  Huddersfield  and 
Bradford,  but  the  houses  they  played  to  were  so  poor 
that  Mr.  Cox  summoned  a  general  meeting  on  the  Sun- 
day morning,  and  told  them  frankly  that  he  could  not 
go  on  losing  money  any  longer;  he  would  however  lend 
them  the  dresses,  and  they  might  start  a  commonwealth 
if  they  liked.  After  much  discussion  it  was  decided 
to  accept  his  offer,  and  the  afternoon  was  spent  in 
striving  to  decide  how  the  business  was  to  be  carried 
on.  A  committee  was  at  last  formed  consisting  of  Dick, 
Mortimer,  Dubois,  Montgomery,  Bret,  and  Mr.  Hayes, 
and  they  settled,  as  they  went  on  to  Halifax  by  an  even- 
ing train,  that  the  chorus  was,  hit  or  miss,  to  be  paid  in 
full,  and  the  takings  then  divided  among  the  principals 
proportionately  to  the  salary  previously  received. 

In  the  face  of  the  bad  times  it  was  a  risky  experi- 


294  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

ment,  and  Williams,  the  agent  in  advance,  was  anxiously 
looked  out  for  at  the  station.  What  did  he  think?  Was 
there  a  chance  of  their  doing  a  bit  of  business  in  the 
toAvn?  Were  there  bills  up  in  all  the  public-houses? 
Williams  did  not  at  first  understand  this  unusual  dis- 
play of  eagerness,  but  when  the  commonwealth  was  ex- 
plained to  him,  his  face  assumed  as  grey  an  expression 
as  the  pimples  would  allow  it.  He  shoved  his  dust- 
eaten  pot  hat  on  one  side,  scratched  his  thin  hair,  and 
after  some  pressing,  admitted  that  he  didn't  think  that 
they  would  do  much  good  in  the  place;  as  far  as  he 
could  see,  everybody's  ideas  were  on  striking  and  poli- 
tics; the  general  election  especially  was  playing  the 
devil  with  managers;  at  least  that  was  what  the  com- 
pany that  had  just  left  said. 

This  was  chilling  news,  and,  alas!  each  subsequent 
evening  proved  only  the  correctness  of  Mr.  Williams's 
anticipations.  Seven-pound  houses  were  the  rule.  On 
Friday  and  Saturday  they  had  two  very  fair  pits,  but 
this  could  not  compensate  for  previous  losses,  and  in 
the  end,  when  all  expenses  were  paid,  only  five-and- 
thirty  shillings  remained  to  be  divided  among  the  prin- 
cipals. Their  next  try  was  at  Oldham,  but  matters 
grew  worse  instead  of  better,  and  on  Saturday  night 
five-and-twenty  shillings  was  sorrowfully  portioned  out 
in  equal  shares.  It  did  not  amount  to  much  more  than 
half  a  crown  apiece.  Rochdale,  however,  was  not  far 
distant,  and,  still  hoping  that  times  would  mend,  Mor- 
ton and  Cox's  band  of  travelling  actors  sped  on  their 
way,  dreaming  of  how  they  could  infuse  new  life  into 
their  mumming,  and  whip  up  the  jaded  pleasure-tastes 
of  the  miners.  But  for  the  moment  comic  songs  proved 
weak  implements  in  the  search  for  ore,  and  the  com- 
mittee sitting  in  the  green-room,  used  likewise  as  a 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  295 

dressing-room  by  the  two  ladies,  counted  out  a  miserable 
four-and-ninepence  as  the  result  of  a  week's  hard 
labour. 

Beaumont  fumed  before  the  small  glass,  arranging 
her  earrings  as  if  she  anticipated  losing  them;  Kate 
trembled  and  clung  to  her  husband's  arm,  Montgomery 
cast  sentimental  glances  of  admiration  at  her,  and  Mor- 
timer tried  to  think  of  something  funny,  while  Dubois 
came  to  the  point  by  asking: 

'  Well,  what  are  you  going  to  do  with  that  four-and- 
ninepence?  It  isn't  worth  dividing.  I  suppose  we'd 
better  drink  it.' 

At  the  mention  of  drinks,  Mr.  Hayes  blinked  and 
shifted  the  black  bag  from  the  chair  to  the  ground. 

'  Yes,  that's  easily  arranged,'  said  Dick,  '  but  what 
about  the  tour  ?  I  for  one  am  not  going  on  at  four-and- 
ninepence  a  week.' 

'  Sp-pend-it-in  drinks/  stuttered  Mr.  Hayes,  awaken- 
ing to  a  partial  sense  of  the  situation. 

Everybody  laughed,  but  in  the  pause  that  ensued, 
each  returned  to  the  idea  that  there  was  no  use  going 
on  at  four-and-ninepence  a  week. 

'  For  we  can't  live  on  drink,  although  Beaumont  can 
upon  love,'  said  Mortimer,  determined  to  say  something. 

But  the  joke  amused  no  one,  and  for  some  time  only 
short  and  irrelevant  sentences  broke  the  long  silences. 
At  last  Dick  said: 

'  Well,  then,  I  suppose  we'd  better  break  up  the  tour.' 

To  this  proposal  no  one  made  much  objection.  Mur- 
murs came  from  different  sides  that  it  was  a  great  pity 
they  should  have  to  part  company  in  this  way  after 
having  been  so  long  together.  Montgomery  and  Dubois 
contributed  largely  to  this  part  of  the  conversation,  and 
through  an  atmosphere  of  whiskey  and  soapsuds  arose 
a  soft  penetrating  poetry  concerning  the  delights  of 
20 


296  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

friendship.  It  was  very  charming  to  think  and  speak 
in  this  way,  but  all  hoped,  with  perhaps  the  exception 
of  Montgomery,  that  no  one  would  insist  too  strongly 
on  this  point,  for  in  the  minds  of  all  new  thoughts  and 
schemes  had  already  begun  to  germinate.  Mortimer  re- 
membered a  letter  he  had  received  from  a  London 
manager;  Dubois  saw  himself  hobnobbing  again  with 
the  old  'pals'  in  the  Strand;  Bret  silently  dreamed  of 
Miss  Leslie's  dyed  hair  and  blue  eyes,  and  of  his 
chances  of  getting  into  the  same  company. 

'  Then,  if  it  is  decided  to  break  up  the  tour,  we  must 
make  a  subscription  to  send  the  chorus  back  to  Lon- 
don,' said  Dick  after  a  long  silence. 

Nobody  till  now  had  thought  of  these  unfortunate 
people  and  their  twenty-five  shillings  a  week,  but  al- 
ways ready  to  help  a  lame  dog  over  a  stile  Dick  planked 
down  two  '  quid/  and  called  on  the  others  to  do  what 
they  could  in  the  same  way.  Mr.  Hayes  strewed  the 
table  instantly  with  the  money  he  had  in  his  pocket. 
Mortimer  spoke  about  his  wife  and  mentioned  details  of 
an  intimate  nature  to  show  how  hard  up  he  was;  he 
nevertheless  stumped  up  a  '  thin  'un.'  Beaumont,  ram- 
pant at  the  idea  of  '  parting,'  contributed  the  same,  in- 
dignant looks  were  levelled  at  her,  and  Dick  continued 
to  exhort  his  friends  to  be  generous.  '  The  poor  girls/ 
he  declared,  '  must  be  got  home ;  it  would  never  do  to 
leave  them  starving  in  Lancashire.'  Kate  gave  a  sover- 
eign of  her  savings,  and  in  this  way  something  over  ten 
pounds  was  made  up;  with  that  Dick  said  he  thought 
he  could  manage. 

The  trouble  he  took  to  manage  everything  was  touch- 
ing. On  Sunday,  when  Kate  was  at  church,  he  was 
down  at  the  railway  station  trying  to  find  out  what  were 
the  best  arrangements  he  could  make.  And  on  Monday 
morning  when  they  were  all  assembled  on  the  platform 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  297 

to  bid  good-bye  to  their  fellow-workers,  it  was  curious 
to  see  this  huge  man,  who  at  a  first  impression 
would  be  taken  for  a  mere  mass  of  sensuality,  rushing 
about  putting  buns  and  sandwiches  in  paper  bags  for 
his  poor  chorus  girls,  encouraging  them  with  kind  words, 
and  when  the  train  began  to  move,  waving  them  large 
and  unctuous  farewells  with  his  big  hat. 

Since  the  first  shock  of  the  threatened  break-up  of 
the  tour  Kate  had  gradually  grown  accustomed  to  the 
idea  and  now  wept  in  silence.  Without  precisely  suf- 
fering from  any  pangs  of  fear  for  the  future,  an  im- 
mense sadness  seemed  to  ache  within  her  very  bones. 
All  things  were  passing  away.  The  flock  of  girls  in 
whose  midst  she  had  lived  was  gone;  a  later  train 
would  take  Mortimer  to  London ;  Bret  was  bidding  them 
good-bye;  Beaumont  was  consulting  a  Bradshaw.  How 
sad  it  seemed!  The  theatre  and  artists  were  vanishing 
into  darkness  like  a  dream.  Not  a  day,  nor  an  hour, 
could  she  see  in  front  of  her. 

'  What  shall  we  do  now  ?  '  she  whispered  to  Dick,  as 
she  trotted  along  by  his  side. 

'  Well,  I  haven't  quite  made  up  my  mind.  I  was 
thinking  last  night  that  it  wouldn't  be  a  bad  idea  to 
make  up  a  little  entertainment — four  or  five  of  us — and 
see  what  we  could  do  in  the  manufacturing  towns. 
Lancashire  is,  you  know,  honeycombed  with  them.  Our 
travelling  expenses  would  amount  to  a  mere  nothing. 
We  must  have  someone  to  operate  on  the  piano.  I  won- 
der if  Montgomery  would  care  about  coming  with  us.' 

Kate  thought  that  he  would,  and  as  she  happened  at 
that  moment  to  catch  sight  of  the  long  tails  of  the 
Newmarket  coat  at  the  other  side  of  the  station,  she 
begged  Dick  to  call  to  the  erratic  musician.  No  sooner 
was  the  proposition  put  forward  than  it  was  accepted, 


298  A    MLfMMER'S    WIFE 

and  in  five  minutes  they  were  at  luncheon  in  a  '  pub.' 
arranging  the  details  of  the  entertainment. 

'  We  shall  want  an  agent-in-advance,  a  bill-poster,  or 
something  of  that  kind,'  said  Montgomery. 

'I've  thought  of  that/  replied  Dick;  'Williams  is 
our  man,  he'll  see  to  all  that,  and  I  don't  know  if  you 
know,  but  he  can  sing  a  good  song  on  his  own  account.' 

'  Can  he  ?  Well,  then,  we  can't  have  anyone  better 
— and  what  shall  we  take  out  ?  ' 

'  Well,  we  must  have  a  little  operetta,  and  I  don't 
think  we  can  do  better  than  Offenbach's  Breaking  the 
Spell.' 

'  Right  you  are/  said  Montgomery,  pulling  out  his 
pocket-book.  '  Breaking  the  Spell,  so  far  so  good ;  now 
we  must  have  a  song  or  a  character  sketch  to  follow,  and 
I  don't  think  it  would  be  a  bad  idea  if  we  rehearsed  a 
comedietta.  What  do  you  say  to  The  Happy  Pair?  ' 

1  Right  you  are,  pencil  it  down,  can't  do  better,  it  al- 
ways goes  well ;  and  then  I  can  sing  between  "The  Men 
of  Harlech." ' 

Montgomery  looked  a  little  awry  at  the  idea  of  having 
to  listen  to  '  The  Men  of  Harlech/  sung  by  Dick,  but  in 
the  discussion  that  followed  as  to  what  Kate  was  to  do, 
'  The  Men  of  Harlech  '  was  forgotten. 

As  Dick  anticipated,  Williams  declared  himself  delight- 
ed to  accompany  them  in  the  double  capacity  of  bill-poster 
and  occasional  singer;  and  after  a  fortnight's  rehearsal 
at  Rochdale,  the  Constellation  Company  started  on  its 
wanderings.  Many  drinks  had  been  consumed  in  seek- 
ing for  the  name;  many  strange  combinations  of  sound 
and  sense  had  been  rejected,  and  it  was  not  until  Dick 
began  to  draw  lines  on  a  piece  of  paper,  affixing  names 
to  the  end  of  each,  that  the  word  suggested  itself.  What 
joy!  What  rapture!  A  rush  was  made  to  the  printers, 
and  in  a  few  hours  the  following  bill  was  produced: 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE 


299 


THE    CONSTELLATION    COMPANY. 

Miss  KATE  D'ARCY. 
* 


MR.  R.  LENNOX. 
* 


MR.  P.  MONTGOMERY. 


* 

MRS.  B.  WILLIAMS. 


XXI 

As  the  Constellation  Company  drove  to  the  station. 
Kate  noticed  that  Rochdale  and  Hanley  were  not  un- 
like, and  the  likeness  between  the  two  towns  set  her 
thinking  how  strange  it  was.  Here  was  the  same  red 
town,  narrow  streets,  built  of  a  brick  that,  under  a  dull 
sky,  glared  to  a  rich  geranium  hue.  The  purplish  tints 
of  Hanley  alone  were  wanting,  but  the  heavy  smoke- 
clouds,  and  the  tall  stems  of  the  chimneys,  were  as 
numerous  in  Rochdale  as  in  her  native  place.  And,  coin- 
cidence still  more  marvellous,  Nature  had  apparently 
aided  and  abetted  what  man's  hand  had  contrived,  for 
in  either  town  a  line  of  hills  swept  around  the  sky. 
The  only  difference  was,  that  the  characteristics  of  Roch- 
dale were  not  so  marked  as  those  of  Hanley.  The  hills 
were  not  so  high,  nor  were  they  in  such  close  array  as 
those  of  the  Staffordshire  town,  and  the  Lancashire 
valley  was  not  so  deep  and  trench-like  as  the  one  that 
engirdles  the  potteries.  It  may  be  that  as  much  smoke 
hung  over  it,  but  the  smoke  did  not  seem  so  black  and 
poisonous,  at  least  not  to  Kate's  eyes;  and,  as  the  train 
sped  along  a  high  embankment,  a  group  of  factory  chim- 
neys emerged  from  a  fold  in  the  hills,  and  comparing 
the  two  landscapes  it  seemed  to  her  there  were  more 
fields  in  the  Lancashire  valley,  water-courses,  trees  and 
hedges — stunted  hedges,  it  is  true — but  she  did  not  re- 

300 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  301 

member  any  hedges  about  Hanley.  At  one  moment  she 
was  minded  to  turn  to  Dick  and  to  call  his  attention  to 
the  likeness  in  the  country  they  were  travelling  through 
to  the  country  she  had  come  from;  had  she  been  alone 
with  him  she  might  have  asked  him,  but  he  was  now 
busy  talking  of  the  comic  songs  and  sketches  in  which 
they  were  to  act.  '  The  Mulligan  Guards  '  was  one  of 
the  items  on  their  programme,  and  she  and  Dick  were 
going  to  sing  it  together.  This  would  be  the  first  time 
they  had  ever  sung  together.  Dick  had  very  little 
voice,  but  he  was  a  good  actor,  and  she  thought  they 
would  be  able  to  make  a  success  of  it.  He  called  her 
attention  and  the  attention  of  the  other  members  of 
the  Constellation  Company  to  the  scattered  towns  and 
villages  they  were  passing  through. 

'  The  very  country  for  our  kind  of  entertainment,' 
he  said;  and  all  the  mummers  rose  from  their  seats 
and  gazed  at  the  wolds  and  factories.  Under  the  green 
waste  of  a  wold  a  chimney  had  been  run  up;  sheds  and 
labourers'  cottages  had  followed,  and  in  five  years,  if 
the  factory  prospered,  this  beginning  would  swell  into  a 
village,  in  twenty  it  would  possess  twenty  thousand  in- 
habitants; for  just  as  in  old  times  the  towns  followed 
the  castles,  so  do  they  now  follow  in  the  wake  of  the 
factories.  The  mummers  gaped  and  wondered  at  the 
arsenic  green  sides  of  the  wolds,  striped  with  rough  stone 
walls  or  blackened  with  an  occasional  coalpit,  the  ridges 
fringed  with  trees  blown  thin  by  sea  breezes.  In  the 
distance,  within  the  folds  of  the  hills,  tall  chimneys 
clustered  and  great  clouds  of  smoke  hung  listless  in  the 
still  autumn  air.  Cold  rays  of  sunlight  strayed  for  a  mo- 
ment on  the  dead  green  of  the  fields,  pale  as  invalids 
enjoying  the  air  for  the  last  time  before  a  winter  seclu- 
sion. And  later  on,  when  the  light  mists  of  evening  de- 
scended and  bore  away  the  landscape,  the  phantom 


S02  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

shapes  of  the  wolds  took  on  a  strange  appearance,  pro- 
ducing in  Kate  a  sensation  of  mobility,  which  to  escape 
from,  for  it  frightened  her,  she  turned  to  Dick  and  asked 
how  far  they  were  from  Bacup.  He  told  her  they  would 
be  there  in  about  half  an  hour,  and  half  an  hour  after- 
wards Williams,  who  had  gone  on  in  front,  met  them 
at  the  station,  and  began  at  once  the  tale  of  his  indus- 
try, saying  that  he  had  been  in  every  public-house,  and 
had  stood  at  the  corners  of  all  the  principal  streets  dis- 
tributing bills. 

'  I  think  we  shall  do  pretty  well/  he  said ;  '  my  only 
bit  of  bad  news  is  that  I  haven't  been  able  to  find  any 
lodgings  for  you;  there's  but  one  hotel,  and  all  the 
rooms  are  taken.' 

Dick,  who  on  such  occasions  always  took  time  by  the 
forelock,  insisted  on  starting  at  once  on  their  search — 
and  up  and  down  the  murky  streets  of  the  manufacturing 
town  they  walked  until  it  was  time  for  them  to  repair 
to  the  Mechanics'  Hall,  where  they  were  going  to  play, 
and  get  ready  for  the  entertainment. 

'  The  Mulligan  Guards  '  proved  a  great  success,  as  did 
also  the  operetta,  Breaking  the  Spell.  Kate's  pretty 
face  and  figure  won  the  hearts  of  the  factory  hands, 
and  she  was  applauded  whenever  she  appeared  on  the 
stage;  and  so  frequent  were  the  encores  that  it  was  half- 
past  ten  before  they  had  finished  their  programme,  and 
close  on  eleven  o'clock  before  they  got  out  of  the  hall 
into  the  street.  Then  the  search  for  lodgings  had  to 
begin  again.  Montgomery  and  Williams,  being  single 
men,  obtained  beds,  but  Kate  and  Dick  were  not  so 
easily  satisfied,  and  they  found  themselves  standing  un- 
der a  porch  with  the  lights  going  out  on  all  sides,  and 
the  prospect  of  spending  a  wet  night  in  the  street  be- 
fore them.  At  last  Dick  bethought  himself  of  the  police 
station,  but  on  applying  to  a  policeman  he  was  directed 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  303 

to  the  back-door  of  a  public-house.  '  He  was  pretty 
sure,'  whispered  the  boy  in  blue,  '  to  get  put  up  there.' 
The  door  was  opened  with  precaution,  and  they  were 
allowed  in.  The  place  was  full  of  people;  it  took  them 
a  long  time  to  get  served,  and  they  were  at  length  told 
that  in  the  way  of  a  room  nothing  could  be  done  for 
them.  Every  bed  in  the  house  was  occupied.  Kate 
raised  her  eyes  to  Dick,  but  her  look  of  misery  was  an- 
ticipated by  a  rough-faced  carter  who  stood  at  the 
counter. 

'  You  bear  up,  little  woman,'  he  said  abruptly;  '  don't 
yo'  look  so  froightent.  Yo'  shall  both  come  up  to  my 
place,  if  yo'  will;  it  isna  up  to  much,  but  oi'll  do  th' 
best  I  can  for  yo'.' 

There  was  no  mistaking  the  kindness  with  which  the 
offer  was  made,  though  the  idea  of  going  to  sleep  at  this 
rough  man's  house  for  the  moment  staggered  even  the 
mummer.  But  as  it  was  now  clear  that  they  would 
have  either  to  accept  their  new  friend's  hospitality,  or 
spend  the  night  on  the  door-step,  it  did  not  take  them 
long  to  decide  on  the  former  alternative.  Their  only 
reason  for  hesitating  was  their  inability  to  understand 
what  were  his  motives  for  asking  them  to  come  to  his 
place.  Then,  as  if  divining  the  reason  of  their  uncer- 
tainty, he  said: 

'  I  know  yo'  well,  tho'  yo'  don't  know  me.  I  was  up 
at  the  'all  to-night,  and  yo'  did  make  me  so  laugh  that 
I  wouldna'  see  yo'  in  the  streets  for  nothing.  Neaw. 
let  it  be  yea  or  nay,  master.' 

For  answer,  Dick  put  out  his  hand;  and  when  he  had 
thanked  the  hospitably  inclined  carter  put  some  ques- 
tions to  him  about  the  entertainment.  Soon  the  two  be- 
gan to  '  pal,'  and  after  another  drink  they  all  went  off 
together. 

After  wading  down  a  few  sloppy  streets,  he  stopped 


304-  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

before  a  low  doorway,  and  ushered  them  into  what 
looked  like  an  immense  kitchen.  They  saw  rafters  over- 
head and  an  open  staircase  ascending  to  the  upper  rooms, 
as  a  ladder  might  through  a  series  of  lofts ;  and  when 
a  candle  had  been  obtained  the  first  thing  their  host 
did  was  to  pull  his  wife  out  of  bed,  and  insist  on  his 
guests  getting  into  it,  a  request  which  the  woman  joined 
in  as  heartily  as  her  husband  as  soon  as  the  reason  for 
this  unceremonious  awakening  had  been  explained  to 
her.  And  so  wearied  out  were  Kate  and  Dick,  and 
so  tempting  did  any  place  of  rest  look  to  them,  that 
they  could  offer  no  opposition  to  the  kind  intentions  of 
their  host  and  hostess,  and  they  slept  heavily  until 
roused  next  morning  by  a  loud  trampling  of  feet  pass- 
ing through  their  room.  It  was  the  family  coming  down 
from  the  lofts  above,  and  as  they  descended  the  stair- 
case they  wished  their  guests  a  broad  Lancashire  good- 
morning. 

And  when  Kate  and  Dick  had  recovered  from  their 
astonishment,  they  dressed  and  went  out  to  buy  some  pro- 
visions, which  they  hoped  to  be  allowed  to  cook  in  the 
rough  kitchen;  but  when  they  returned  with  their  pur- 
chases they  found  the  carter's  daughter  standing  before 
an  elaborately  prepared  breakfast,  consisting  of  a  huge 
beefsteak  and  a  high  pile  of  cakes. 

'  Lor,  marm,  why  did  yo'  buy  those  things  ?  '  said  the 
girl,  disappointed. 

'  Well,'  said  Kate,  'we  couldn't  think  of  trespassing  on 
you  in  that  fashion.  You  must,  you  will,  I  hope,  let  us 
prepare  our  own  breakfast.' 

'  Feyther  will  never  'ear  of  it,  I  know/  said  the  girl ; 
and  immediately  after,  the  carter,  with  his  brawny  arms. 
pushed  Kate  and  Dick  down  into  two  seats  at  the  big 
table.  Both  cake  and  meat  were  delicious,  and  Dick's 
appetite  showed  such  signs  of  outdoing  the  carter's  that 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  305 

Kate,  in  the  hope  of  diverting  attention,  commenced  an 
interesting  conversation  with  the  buxom  maiden  by  her 
side,  and  so  successful  were  her  efforts  that  a  friendship 
was  soon  established  between  the  women;  and,  when  the 
morning's  work  was  done,  Mary,  of  her  own  accord, 
sought  out  Kate,  and  as  she  knitted  the  thick  woollen 
stocking,  was  easily  led  into  telling  the  inevitable  love 
story. 

We  change  the  surroundings,  but  a  heart  bleeds  under 
all  social  variations;  and  in  this  grim  manufacturing 
town  when  the  bridal  dress  was  taken  out  of  its  laven- 
der and  darkness  it  seemed  to  possess  a  gleam  of  poetic 
whiteness  that  it  could  not  have  had  even  if  set  off  by 
the  pleasant  verdure  of  a  Devonshire  lane. 

'  But  you'll  keep  it  for  another ;  another  will  be  sure 
to  come  by  very  soon,'  said  Kate,  trying  to  console. 

'  Nay,  nay,  I'll  have  no  other/  said  the  girl.  '  I'll 
just  keep  the  dress  by;  but  I'll  have  no  other.' 

Then  the  talk  hesitated  and  fell  at  last  into  a  long 
narrative  concerning  tender  hopes  and  illusions  to  which 
Kate  listened,  as  all  women  do,  to  the  story  of  heart-aches 
and  deceptions;  and  in  after  years,  when  all  other  re- 
membrances of  the  black  country  were  swept  away,  the 
remembrances  of  this  white  dress  remained. 

From  Bacup  they  went  to  Whitworth,  a  town  in  such 
immediate  neighbourhood  that  it  might  be  called  a  sub- 
urb of  the  former  place,  and  there  they  played  in  the 
Co-operative  Hall  to  an  audience  consisting  of  a  factory 
man,  two  children,  and  a  postman  who  came  in  on  the 
free  list.  This  was  not  encouraging;  but  they,  never- 
theless, resolved  to  try  the  place  again;  and  next  day 
at  dinner-time,  as  the  '  hands  '  were  leaving  the  factories, 
they  distributed  some  hundreds  of  bills.  Dick  said  he 
should  never  forget  it;  to  watch  Pimply  Face  cutting 
about,  shoving  his  bills  into  the  women's  aprons,  was  the 


306  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

funniest  thing  he  had  ever  seen  in  his  life.  But  their 
efforts  were  all  in  vain.  It  rained,  and  not  a  soul  came 
to  see  them;  and,  in  addition  to  their  other  troubles,  they 
found  Whitworth  was  an  awkward  place  to  stop  at. 
Dick  and  his  wife  had  a  room  in  a  pub.,  but  Montgom- 
ery and  Williams  had  to  walk  over  each  evening  to  sleep 
at  Bacup.  One  day  their  landlady  spoke  of  Clayton-le- 
Moors,  where,  she  said,  a  fair  was  being  held,  and  she 
advised  the  Constellation  Company  to  try  their  entertain- 
ment there.  This  was  considered  as  a  sensible  sugges- 
tion, and  the  four  mummers  started  for  the  fair  on  the 
top  of  an  omnibus  with  their  wigs  and  dresses  and  make- 
ups stuck  under  their  legs.  The  weather  at  least  was 
in  their  favour.  The  sunlight  rolled  over  the  great 
white  sides  of  the  booths,  Aunt  Sallies  were  being  shied 
at,  the  pubs,  were  all  open,  and  a  huge,  rollicking  popu- 
lation, fetid  with  the  fermenting  sweat  of  the  factories, 
was  disporting  on  whiskey  and  fresh  air.  Never  were 
the  spirits  of  dejected  strolling  players  buoyed  up  with 
a  fairer  prospect  of  a  harvest. 

The  next  thing  to  do  was  to  distribute  the  handbills, 
and  find  a  place  where  they  could  set  up  their  show, 
and,  to  conduct  their  search  more  thoroughly,  they  sepa- 
rated, after  having  decided  on  a  tryst.  In  this  way  the 
town  was  thoroughly  ransacked;  but  it  was  not  until 
Kate,  who  had  gone  off  on  her  own  accord,  learnt  from 
the  landlord  of  a  public-house,  where  she  had  entered 
to  get  a  drink,  that  he  had  a  large  concert-room  over- 
head, that  there  seemed  to  be  slightest  chance  of  the 
Constellation  Company  being  able  to  turn  the  joviality  of 
the  factory  hands  at  the  fair  to  any  account.  Matters 
now  seemed  to  be  looking  up,  and  a  very  neat  little  ar- 
rangement was  entered  into  with  the  proprietor  of  the 
pub.  Four  entertainments  of  ten  minutes  each  were  to 
be  given  every  hour,  for  each  of  which  the  sum  of  three- 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  307 

pence  a  head  was  to  be  charged,  twopence  to  go  to  the 
artists,  a  penny  to  the  landlord,  who  would,  of  course, 
make  his  '  bit '  also  out  of  the  drink  supplied.  And 
what  a  success  they  had  that  day!  Not  only  did  the 
factory  hands  come  in,  but  they  paid  their  threepence 
over  and  over  again.  They  seemed  never  to  grow  tired 
of  hearing  Dick  and  Kate  sing  the  '  Mulligan  Guards,' 
and  when  she  called  out  '  Corps,'  and  he  touched  his 
cap,  and  they  broke  into  a  dance,  the  delight  of  the 
workpeople  knew  no  bounds,  and  they  often  stopped 
the  entertainment  to  hand  up  their  mugs  of  beer  to  the 
mummers  with  a  '  'Ave  a  soop,  mon.' 

From  twelve  o'clock  in  the  day  until  eleven  at  night 
the  affair  was  kept  going;  Kate,  Dick,  and  Williams 
dancing  and  singing  in  turn,  and  Montgomery  all  the 
while  spanking  away  at  the  dominoes.  It  was  heavy 
work,  but  the  coin  they  took  was  considerable,  and  it 
came  in  handy,  for  in  the  next  three  towns  they  did 
very  badly.  But  at  Padiham  a  curious  accident  turned 
out  in  the  end  very  luckily  for  them.  There  were  but 
five  people  in  the  house,  one  of  whom  was  drunk.  This 
fellow  very  humorously  in  the  middle  of  the  entertain- 
ment declared  that  he  was  going  to  sing  a  song;  he  even 
wanted  to  appropriate  Williams's  wig,  and  when  Dick, 
who  was  always  chucker-out  on  such  occasions,  attempted 
to  eject  him,  he  climbed  out  of  reach  and  lodged  him- 
self in  one  of  the  windows.  From  there  he  proceeded  to 
call  to  the  people  in  the  street,  and  with  such  excellent 
result  that  they  made  £18  in  the  hall  during  the  even- 
ing. 

This,  and  similar  slices  of  good  fortune,  kept  the  Con- 
stellation Company  rolling  from  one  adventure  to  an- 
other. Sometimes  a  wet  day  came  to  their  assistance; 
sometimes  a  dispute  between  some  factory  hands  and  the 
masters  brought  them  a  little  money.  Their  wants  were 


SOS  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

simple;  a  bed  in  a  pub.  and  a  steak  for  dinner  was  all 
they  asked  for.  But  at  last,  as  winter  wore  on,  ill- 
fortune  commenced  to  follow  them  very  closely  and  per- 
sistently. They  had  been  to  four  different  towns  and 
had  not  made  a  ten-pound  note  to  divide  between  the  lot 
of  them.  In  the  face  of  such  diversity  it  was  not  worth 
while  keeping  on;  besides,  Kate's  expected  confinement 
rendered  it  impossible  to  prolong  their  little  tour  much 
farther.  For  these  reasons,  one  November  morning  the 
Constellation  Company,  hoping  they  would  soon  meet 
again,  under  more  auspicious  circumstances,  bade  each 
other  good-bye  at  the  railway  station.  Williams  and 
Montgomery  went  to  Liverpool,  Kate  and  Dick  to  make 
a  stay  at  Rochdale,  where  they  had  heard  that  many 
companies  were  coming.  The  companies  came,  it  is  true, 
but  they  were,  unfortunately,  filled  up,  and  Lennox  and 
his  wife  could  not  get  an  engagement  in  any  of  them. 
The  little  money  saved  out  of  their  tour  enabled  them 
to  keep  body  and  soul  together  for  about  a  month;  but 
in  the  fifth  week,  they  were  telling  the  landlady  lies, 
and  going  through  all  the  classic  excuses — expecting  a 
letter  every  day,  by  Monday  at  the  very  latest,  etc.  In 
the  face  of  Kate's  approaching  confinement  this  was  a 
state  of  things  that  made  even  Dick  begin  to  look  anx- 
iously round  and  fear  for  the  safety  of  the  future. 
Kate,  on  the  contrary,  although  fretted  and  wearied,  took 
matters  more  easily  than  might  have  been  expected;  and 
the  changing  of  their  last  ten  shillings  frightened  her 
less  than  had  the  first  announcement  of  the  possible 
breaking  up  of  Morton  and  Cox's  Operatic  Company. 
Bohemianism  had  achieved  in  her  its  last  victory;  and 
having  lately  seen  so  many  of  the  difficulties  of  life  solv- 
ing themselves  in  ways  that  were  inexplicable  to  her, 
she  had  unconsciously  come  to  think  that  there  was  no 
knot  that  chance,  luck,  or  fate  would  not  untie.  Be- 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  309 

sides,  her  big  Dick's  resources  were  apparently  unlim- 
ited; the  present  weakness  of  her  condition  tended  to 
induce  her  to  rely  more  than  ever  upon  his  protection; 
and  in  the  lassitude  of  weak  hopes,  she  contented  her- 
self with  praying  occasionally  that  all  would  yet  come 
right.  But  her  lover,  although  he  told  her  nothing  of 
his  fears,  was  not  so  satisfied.  Never  before  had  he 
been  quite  so  hard  pressed.  They  now  owed  a  week's 
rent,  besides  other  small  debts;  all  of  which  they  were 
unable  to  pay  unless  they  pawned  the  remainder  of  their 
clothes.  He  said  it  would  be  far  better  for  them  to  go 
to  Manchester,  leaving  their  things,  to  be  redeemed  some 
day,  as  a  security  with  the  landlady — that  is  to  say,  if 
they  failed  to  get  out  of  the  house  without  being  per- 
ceived by  her.  They  still  had  half  a  crown,  which 
would  pay  Kate's  railway  fare,  and  as  regards  himself, 
Dick  proposed  that  he  should  do  the  journey  on  foot; 
he  would  be  able  to  walk  the  distance  easily  in  three 
hours,  and  at  eleven  o'clock  would  join  his  wife  at  an 
address  which  he  gave  her,  with  many  injunctions  as  to 
the  story  that  was  to  be  told  to  the  landlady.  So,  as 
the  clock  was  striking  seven  one  cold  winter's  morning, 
they  stole  quietly  downstairs,  Dick  carrying  a  small  port- 
manteau. On  the  table  of  their  room  a  letter  was  left, 
explaining  that  a  telegram  received  over  night  called 
them  to  Manchester,  but  that  they  hoped  to  be  back  again 
in  a  few  days — a  week  at  latest. 

This  "assurance  Dick  considered  would  amply  satisfy 
the  old  dame,  and  holding  the  portmanteau  on  his  shoul- 
der with  one  arm,  and  supporting  Kate  with  the  other, 
he  made  his  way  to  the  station. 

The  day  had  not  yet  begun  to  break.  A  heavy,  slug- 
gish night  hung  over  the  town.  The  streets  were  filled 
with  puddles  and  flowing  mud;  and  Kate  was  frequently 
obliged  to  stop  and  rest  against  the  lamp-posts.  She 


310  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

complained  of  feeling  very  ill,  and  she  walked  with  dif- 
ficulty. In  the  straggling  light  of  the  gas,  Dick  looked 
at  her  pale,  pretty  features,  accentuated  by  suffering; 
he  felt  that  he  had  never  known  before  how  dearly  he 
loved  her,  and  the  pity  for  her  that  filled  his  heart 
choked  him  when  he  attempted  to  speak;  and  his  eyes 
misted  with  tears  and  he  could  not  bring  his  mind  to 
leave  her.  He  thought  of  the  old  dodge  of  travelling 
on  the  luggage,  but  fearing  that  the  woman  to  whose 
house  they  were  going  would  not  let  them  in  unless  they 
had  at  least  one  portmanteau  to  show,  he  determined  to 
adhere  to  the  original  plan  of  sending  Kate  on  in  front; 
and  although  tortured  by  many  fears,  he  hid  them,  assur- 
ing her  that  their  troubles  would  be  over  once  they  set 
foot  in  Manchester:  all  he  had  to  do  was  to  go  down 
to  the  Theatre  Royal  to  get  an  engagement.  And  he 
spoke  so  kindly  that  his  kindness  seemed  to  repay  her 
for  her  sufferings. 

For  some  days  past  she  had  been  subject  to  violent 
nauseas  and  acute  pains,  and  as  she  bade  him  good- 
bye out  of  the  railway-carriage  window,  she  had  to  bend 
and  press  herself  against  it.  And  feeling  he  must  en- 
courage her  he  ran  along  the  platform  till  the  train 
began  to  leave  him  behind,  and  he  stopped  out  of  breath 
with  a  cloud  of  melancholy  upon  his  cheeks,  generally 
so  restful  in  a  happy  animalism — yet  the  fat  hand  lifted 
the  big-brimmed  black  felt  hat,  the  frizzly  curls  below 
in  the  cold  wind,  the  train  oscillated  and  then  rolled 
and  disappeared  round  a  bend  in  the  line. 

That  was  all.  What  had  been  done  was  over,  as  com- 
pletely as  the  splash  made  by  a  stone  dropped  into  a 
well,  and  the  actor  awoke  to  a  feeling  that  something 
new  had  again  to  be  begun. 

After  descending  the  steps  of  the  station,  he  asked 
to  be  directed,  and  for  a  long  time  his  way  lay  through 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  311 

a  street,  made  by  red  brick  houses  with  stucco  porches; 
but  at  length  these  commenced  to  divide  into  cottages, 
and  after  many  inquiries,  he  was  shown  into  what  he 
\vas  told  was  an  old  Roman  road,  called  '  Going  over 
Tindel.'  The  wind  blew  bitterly,  and  against  a  murky 
sky  the  fretted  trees  on  the  higher  ridges  were  like  veils 
of  grey  lace. 

Walking  was  not  Dick's  forte,  and  leaning  against 
a  farm  gate,  his  eyes  embraced  the  wild  black  scenery, 
and  remembrances  of  the  Hanley  hills  drifted  through 
his  thoughts.  There  were  the  same  rolling  wastes,  and 
like  the  pieces  on  a  chess-board  the  factory  chimneys 
appeared  at  irregular  intervals.  But  these  topograph- 
ical similarities  attracted  Dick  only  so  far  as  they  filled 
his  mind  with  old  memories  and  associations,  and  his 
thoughts  flowed  from  the  time  he  had  stood  with  his 
wife  at  the  top  of  Market  Street  to  the  present  hour. 
He  neither  praised  nor  blamed  himself.  He  accepted 
things  as  they  were  without  criticism,  and  they  appeared 
to  him  like  a  turgid  dream  swollen  and  bleak  as  the 
confused  expanse  of  distance  before  him. 

The  stupor  into  which  he  occasionally  fell  endured 
until  a  quick  thought  would  strike  through  the  mental 
gloom  that  oppressed  him,  and  relinquishing  the  farm 
gate  he  would  moodily  resume  his  walk  through  the 
heavy  slosh  of  the  wet  roads.  As  he  did  so  the  vision 
of  Kate's  pain-strucken  face  haunted  him,  and  at  every 
step  his  horror  of  the  danger  she  ran  of  being  taken  ill 
before  arriving  in  Manchester  grew  darker,  and  he  toiled 
up  hill  after  hill,  yearning  to  be  near  her,  desiring  only 
the  power  to  relieve  and  to  help.  Often  the  intensity 
of  his  longing  would  force  him  into  a  run,  and  then  the 
farm  labourers  would  turn  from  their  work  to  gaze  on 
this  huge  creature,  who  stood  on  a  hill-top  wearily  wip- 
ing his  forehead. 
21 


312  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

And  then  he  grew  sick  of  the  long,  strong,  rolling 
landscape,  with  its  thousand  sinuosities,  its  single  trees, 
its  detailed  foreground  of  scrub,  hedges,  brooks,  spanned 
by  small  brick  bridges,  the  melting  distance,  the  murky 
sky,  the  belching  chimneys :  he  asked  himself  if  it  would 
never  end,  if  it  would  never  define  itself  into  the  streets 
of  Manchester.  And  as  he  descended  each  incline  his 
eyes  searched  for  the  indication  of  a  town,  until  at  last 
he  saw  lines  of  smoke  factories,  and  masses  of  brick  on 
his  left,  and  he  hastened. 

All  the  markings  of  the  way  were  looked  forward  to, 
the  outlying  streets  seemed  endless,  and  so  great  was  his 
hurry  that  before  he  discovered  he  was  in  Oldham,  he 
had  walked  into  the  middle  of  the  town. 

His  disappointment  was  bitter  indeed,  almost  un- 
bearable, and  for  the  moment  he  felt  that  he  could  go 
no  farther;  his  courage  was  exhausted,  it  was  impossible 
he  could  face  that  bleak  mocking  landscape  again.  Be- 
sides, he  was  fainting  for  want  of  food.  Had  he  pos- 
sessed a  few  pence  to  treat  himself  to  a  glass  of  beer  and 
a  bit  of  bread  and  cheese,  he  thought  he  would  be  able 
to  pull  himself  together  and  make  another  effort;  but 
he  was  destitute.  Still  he  was  forced  to  try  again. 
The  thought  of  Kate  burned  in  his  brain,  and  after  hav- 
ing inquired  the  way  with  weary  and  aching  feet  he  once 
more  trudged  manfully  on.  A  fretful  suspicion  now 
haunted  him  that  she  might  not  find  the  landlady  as 
agreeable  as  would  under  the  circumstances  be  desirable, 
and  he  reasoned  with  himself  as  he  crossed  into  the  open 
country,  until  anxiety  became  absorbed  by  fatigue.  Of 
every  passer-by  did  he  ask  the  way,  and  as  he  passed 
the  stately  villas  Dick  felt  that  had  there  been  much 
farther  to  walk  he  would  have  had  to  beg  a  lift  from 
one  of  the  waggoners  who  passed  him  constantly  driv- 
ing their  heavy  teams.  But  he  was  now  in  Manchester, 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  313 

and  wondering  if  he  had  taken  longer  to  walk  than  he 
had  expected  he  looked  into  the  shop  windows  in  search 
of  a  clock,  and  when  he  rang  at  the  door  of  the  lodging 
house  his  heart  beat  as  rapidly  as  the  jangling  bell  that 
pealed  through  the  house.  The  maid  who  answered  the 
door  told  him  that  she  knew  of  no  such  person  and  was 
about  to  shut  the  door  in  his  face,  but  Dick's  good- 
natured  smile  compelled  her  into  parley,  and  she  admitted 
that,  having  been  out  on  an  errand,  she  had  not  seen 
the  missus  since  ten  o'clock.  A  lady  might  have  called, 
but  she  wasn't  in  the  house  now;  they  were  as  full  as 
they  could  hold. 

'  And  are  you  certain  that  a  lady  might  have  called 
about  ten  or  half-past  without  your  having  seen  her?  ' 

'  I  was  out  on  a  herrant  at  that  time,  so  I'm  sure 
she  might,  for  missus  wouldn't  mind  to  tell  me  if  I 
wasn't  to  get  rooms  ready  for  her.' 

'And  what  would  your  mistress  do  in  the  case  of 
not  being  able  to  supply  a  lady  with  rooms  ?  ' 

'  I  should  think  she  would  send  round  to  Mrs.  

well — I  don't  remember  right  the  name/ 

'  Do  you  know  the  address  ?  ' 

'  I  know  it's  behind  the  station,  one  of  those  streets 
where — nay — but  I  don't  think  I  could  direct  you  right.' 

'  Then  what  shall  I  do?  ' 

'  Missus  will  be  in  shortly.  If  you'll  take  a  seat  in 
the  'all — I  can't  ask  you  into  any  other  room,  they're 
all  occupied.' 

There  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  accept,  and  after 
having  asked  when  the  landlady  might  be  expected  in, 
and  receiving  the  inevitable  '  Really  couldn't  say  for 
certain,  sir,  but  I  don't  think  she'll  be  long,'  he  sat 
down  in  a  chair,  weary  and  footsore;  there  were  times 
when  struck  by  a  sudden  thought  he  would  make  a 
movement  as  if  to  start  from  his  seat;  but  instantly  re- 


314  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

membering  his  own  powerlessness,  he  would  slip  back 
into  his  attitude  of  heavy  fatigue.  In  the  dining-room 
the  clock  ticked,  and  he  listened  to  the  passing  of  the 
minutes,  tortured  by  the  idea  that  his  wife  was  suffer- 
ing, dying,  and  that  he  was  not  near  to  help,  to  assist, 
to  assuage.  He  forgot  that  they  were  penniless,  home- 
less; all  was  lost  in  a  boundless  pity,  and  he  listened 
to  the  footsteps  growing  sharper  as  they  approached, 
and  duller  as  they  went.  At  last  the  sound  of  the  latch- 
key was  heard  in  the  lock,  and  Dick  started  to  his  feet. 
It  was  the  landlady. 

'  Have  you  seen  my  wife  ? ' 

'  Yes,  sir,'  exclaimed  the  astonished  woman ;  '  she 
was  here  this  morning,  all  our  rooms  are  let,  so  I 
couldn't ' 

'  Where  has  she  gone  to,  do  you  know  ?  ' 

'  Well,  sir,  I  was  going  to  say,  she  asked  me  if  I 
could  recommend  her  to  some  quiet  place,  and  I  sent 
her  to  Mrs.  Hurley's.' 

'  And  will  you  give  me  Mrs.  Hurley's  address  ?  ' 

'  Yes,  sir,  certainly;  but  if  I  may  make  so  bold,  you're 
looking  very  tired — may  I  offer  you  a  glass  of  beer? 
And  Mrs.  Lennox  is  looking  very  bad  too,  she  is ' 

'  I'm  much  obliged,  but  I've  no  time,  if  you'd  give 
me  the  address  .  .  .' 

No  sooner  were  the  words  spoken  than,  forgetful  of 
his  aching  feet,  Dick  rushed  away,  and  dodging  the 
passers-by  he  ran  until  he  laid  hands  on  the  knocker 
and  bell  in  question. 

'  Is  Mrs.  Lennox  staying  here?  '  he  asked  of  the  lady 
who  opened  the  door. 

'  There  was  a  lady  of  that  name  who  inquired  for 
rooms  here  this  morning.' 

'And  isn't  she  here?  Why  didn't  she  take  the 
rooms  ?  ' 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  315 

'  Well,  sir,  she  said  she  was  expecting  to  be  con- 
fined, and  I  didn't  care  to  have  illness  in  my  house.' 

'  You  don't  mean  to  tell  me  that  you  turned  her  out  ? 
Oh,  you  atrocious — !  If  you  were  a  man  .  .  .' 

Overpowered  with  rage  he  stopped  for  words,  and  the 
woman,  fearing  he  would  strike  her,  strove  to  shut  the 
door.  But  Dick,  with  his  thick  leg,  prevented  her, 
and  at  this  moment  they  were  joined  by  the  maid,  who 
screamed  over  her  mistress's  shoulder: 

'  The  lady  said  she  would  come  round  here  in  a  couple 
o'  hours'  time  to  ask  for  you,  and  I  advised  her  to  try 
for  rooms  at  No.  28  in  this  street.  You'll  find  her 
there.' 

This  was  enough  for  Dick,  and  loosing  his  hold  on 
the  door  he  made  off;  streets,  carriages,  passers-by, 
whirled  before  his  eyes. 

'  Is  Mrs.  Lennox  here  ?  '  he  asked  so  roughly  when 
the  door  was  opened,  that  the  maid  regretted  having 
said  yes  as  soon  as  the  word  had  passed  her  lips. 

'  On  what  floor  ?  ' 

'The  first,  sir;  but  you'd  better  let  me  go  up  first. 
Mrs.  Lennox  is  not  very  well;  she's  expecting  her  hus- 
band.' 

'  I'm  her  husband.' 

And  on  that  Dick  rushed  at  the  staircase.  A  few 
strides  brought  him  on  to  the  first  landing;  but  a 
sudden  disappointment  seized  him — the  sitting-room  was 
empty.  Thinking  instantly  of  the  bedroom,  he  flung  open 
the  door,  and  there  he  saw  Kate  sitting  on  the  edge 
of  the  bed  rocking  herself  to  and  fro.  She  rose  to 
her  feet  and  the  expression  of  weary  pain  was  changed 
to  one  of  joy  as  she  fell  into  Dick's  arms. 

'  I  thought  you'd  never  come,  and  they  would  take 
me  in  nowhere.' 

'Yes,  my  darling,  I  know  all  about  it;  I  know  all.' 


316  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

He  laid  kisses  on  the  rich  black-blue  hair  and  the 
pale  tired  face;  he  felt  light  hands  resting  on  him; 
she  felt  strong  arms  clasped  about  her,  and  each  soul 
seemed  to  be  but  the  reflection  of  the  other,  just  as  the 
sky  and  the  sea  are  when  the  sun  is  at  its  meridian. 

Then,  as  this  brief  but  ineffable  moment  of  spiritual 
unison  faded  words  returned  to  them,  and  Kate  spoke 
of  all  she  had  suffered.  She  whispered  the  story  she 
had  told  the  landlady,  and  how  she  had  ordered  a  big 
dinner,  and  everything  of  the  best,  so  that  they  might 
not  be  suspected  of  being  hard  up.  Dick  approved  of 
these  arrangements;  but  just  as  he  smacked  his  lips,  a 
foretaste  of  the  leg  of  mutton  in  his  mouth,  Kate  ut- 
tered a  sort  of  low  cry,  and  turning  pale,  pressed  her 
hands  to  her  side.  A  sharp  pain  had  suddenly  run 
through  her,  and  as  quickly  died  away;  but  a  few  min- 
utes after  this  was  succeeded  by  another,  which  lasted 
longer  and  gripped  her  more  acutely.  Supporting  her 
tenderly  he  helped  her  across  the  room  and  laid  her 
on  the  bed.  There  she  seemed  to  experience  some  relief ; 
but  very  soon  she  was  again  seized  by  the  most  acute 
pangs.  It  seemed  to  her  that  she  was  bound  about  with 
a  buckler  of  iron,  and  frightened  Dick  rang  for  the  land- 
lady. The  worthy  woman  saw  at  a  glance  what  was 
happening,  and  sent  him  off,  weary  as  he  was,  to  fetch 
a  doctor  and  the  needful  assistance. 


XXII 

THE  doctor  and  nurse  arrived  almost  simultaneously 
and  passed  into  the  sick-room,  bidding  Dick,  who  came 
running  upstairs  a  moment  after,  be  of  good  cheer. 
The  mummer  took  his  hat  from  his  head  and  stood 
for  a  moment  staring  vacantly  at  the  bedroom  door, 
as  if  striving  to  read  there  the  secrets  of  life,  birth,  and 
death.  Then  he  remembered  how  tired  he  was,  and 
with  a  large  movement  of  fatigue  he  sat  down  on  the 
sofa.  A  gloomy  yellow  sky  filled  the  room  with  an  op- 
pressive and  mournful  twilight,  and  to  relieve  his  aching 
feet  Dick  had  kicked  off  his  shoes,  and  with  his  folded 
arms  pressed  against  his  stomach  he  sat  hour  after  hour, 
too  hungry  to  sleep,  listening  to  the  low  moaning  that 
came  through  the  chinks  of  the  door.  He  appeared  to 
be  totally  forgotten;  voices  whispered  on  the  staircase, 
people  passed  hurriedly  through  the  sitting-room,  but 
none  asked  him  if  he  wanted  anything:  no  one  even 
noticed  him,  and  when  the  landlady  lighted  the  gas  she 
uttered  a  cry  of  astonishment,  as  if  she  had  discovered 
an  intruder  in  the  room. 

'  Oh,  lawks !  Mr.  Lennox,  we'd  forgotten  all  about 
you,  and  you  sittin'  there  so  quiet.  But  your  wife  is 
getting  on  nice,  she  has  just  had  a  cup  of  beef  tea: 
in  about  another  couple  of  hours  it  will  be  all  over.' 

'  Is  she  suffering  much  ?  ' 

317 


318  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  Well,  sir,  yes,  I  wouldn't  consider  it  an  easy  confine- 
ment; but  I  think  it  will  be  all  right,  you'll  see  your 
wife  and  child  alive  and  well  to-morrow  morning.' 

Dick  could  not  help  doubting  the  truth  of  the  wo- 
man's statement  unless  she  came  to  his  assistance  with 
food.  Although  almost  starving,  he  was  afraid  to  call 
for  dinner  lest  she  should  ask  him  for  some  money  in 
advance,  but  at  that  moment  a  cramp  seized  him,  and 
turning  pale  he  had  to  lean  over  the  table  to  suppress 
the  moan  which  rose  to  his  lips. 

'  What's  the  matter,  sir  ?  You  look  quite  ill,'  the 
woman  asked. 

'  Oh,  'twas  only  a  sudden  pain,'  Dick  said,  making 
an  effort  to  recover  himself.  '  I've  eaten  nothing  all 
day — have  had  no  time,  you  know.' 

'  Then  we  shall  have  you  laid  up  as  well  as  your 
wife,  and  there's  the  leg  of  mutton  she  ordered  stewing 
away  all  these  hours.  I'm  afraid  you  won't  be  able  to 
eat  it?' 

Absurd  as  the  question  appeared  to  him,  Dick  an- 
swered adroitly: 

'  It  will  do  very  well,  if  you'll  bring  it  up  as  soon 
as  you  can;  I  may  have  to  go  out.' 

This  was  intended  as  a  ruse  to  deceive  the  landlady, 
for  so  tired  was  he  that  had  it  been  to  save  Kate's  life 
he  did  not  think  he  would  have  walked  downstairs.  He 
could  think  of  nothing  but  putting  something  into  his 
stomach,  and  hard  and  dry  as  the  mutton  was  it  seemed 
to  him  the  most  delicious  thing  he  had  ever  tasted.  His 
pain  melted  away  with  the  first  mouthful,  and  the  glass 
of  beer  ran  'through  and  warmed  his  entire  system. 
Down  the  great  throat  the  victuals  disappeared  as  if  by 
magic,  and  the  unceasing  cry  that  seemed  now  to  fill  the 
entire  house  passed  almost  unheeded. 

For  a  moment  he  would  listen  pityingly,  and  then 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  319 

like  an  animal  return  to  his  food.  He  cut  slice  after 
slice  from  the  joint,  and  as  his  hunger  seemed  to  grow 
upon  him  he  thought  he  could  finish  it,  and  even  longed 
to  take  the  bone  in  his  hand  and  pick  it  with  his  teeth; 
but  he  reasoned  with  himself;  it  would  not  do  to  let  the 
landlady  suspect  they  had  no  money,  and  as  he  gazed 
at  the  last  potato,  which  he  was  afraid  to  eat,  he  con- 
sidered what  he  should  say  in  apology  for  his  appetite; 
but  as  he  sought  for  a  nice  phrase,  something  pleasantly 
facetious,  he  remembered  that  he  would  have  to  find 
money  and  at  once;  he  must  have  some  no  later  than  to- 
morrow. There  were  a  thousand  things  that  would  have 
to  be  paid  for — the  baby's  clothes,  the  cradle,  the — he 
tried  to  think  of  what  was  generally  wanted  under  such 
circumstances,  but  the  cries  in  the  next  room  which  had 
gradually  swelled  into  shrieks,  appalled  him,  and  invol- 
untarily the  thought  struck  him  that  there  might  be  a 
funeral  to  pay  for  as  well  as  a  birth. 

At  that  moment  the  bell  tinkled,  and  the  maid  came 
running  up.  She  carried  a  jug  of  hot  water  and  flan- 
nels in  her  hand,  and  pushing  past  him  she  declared 
that  she  hadn't  a  moment.  The  door  of  the  bedroom 
was  ajar;  a  fire  burned,  candles  flared  on  the  mantel- 
piece, a  basin  stood  on  the  floor,  and  at  times  nothing 
was  heard  but  a  long  moan,  mingling  with  the  murmur- 
ing voices  of  the  doctor  and  nurse. 

The  room  seemed  like  a  sanctuary  in  which  some 
mysterious  rite  was  being  performed.  But  suddenly  the 
silence  was  broken  by  shrieks  so  passionate  and  acute 
that  all  the  earlier  ones  were  only  remembered  as  feeble 
lamentations. 

Dick  raised  his  big  face  from  his  hands,  the  move- 
ment threw  back  the  mass  of  frizzly  hair,  and  in  the 
intensity  of  this  emotion  he  looked  like  a  lion. 

'  Was   this   life/   he   asked   himself,   '  or   death  ?   and 


320  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

by  whose  order  was  a  human  creature  tortured  thus 
cruelly?  '  But  the  idea  of  God  did  not  arrest  his  atten- 
tion, and  his  thoughts  fixing  themselves  on  the  child,  he 
asked  himself,  what  was  this  new  life  to  him? 

'  Oh,  I  never  will  again !  Oh,  how  I  hate  him — I 
could  kill  him!  I'll  never  love  him,  never  no  more.' 

The  cry  touched  the  fat  mummer  through  all  the 
years  of  gross  sensuality,  through  the  indigestion  of 
his  big  dinner,  and,  struck  by  the  sense  of  her  words, 
he  shuddered,  remembering  that  it  was  he  who  was 
the  cause  of  this  outrageous  suffering  and  not  the  inno- 
cent child.  Was  it  possible,  he  asked  himself,  that  she 
would  never  love  him  again?  He  didn't  know.  Was  it 
possible  that  he  was  culpable?  Strange  notions  re- 
specting the  origin,  the  scheme,  the  design  of  the  uni- 
verse, flashed  in  dim  chiaro-oscuro  through  his  thoughts 
and  for  a  full  hour  Dick  pondered,  philosopher  like,  on 
the  remote  causes  and  the  distant  finalities  of  men  and 
things. 

An  hour  full  of  moans  and  cries  of  suffering,  then  a 
great  silence  came,  and  the  whole  house  seemed  to  sigh 
with  a  sense  of  relief. 

'  The  baby  must  be  born,'  he  said;  and  immediately 
after  a  little  thin  cry  was  heard,  and  in  his  heart  it 
was  prolonged  like  a  note  of  gladness,  and  his  thoughts 
became  paternal. 

He  wondered  if  it  were  a  girl  or  a  boy;  he  fancied 
he'd  like  a  girl  best.  If  she  were  pretty,  and  had  a 
bit  of  a  voice,  he'd  be  able  to  push  her  to  the  front, 
whereas  with  a  boy  it  would  be  more  difficult.  Re- 
linquishing his  dreams  at  this  point,  Dick  listened  to 
the  silence.  He  did  not  dare  to  knock  at  the  door, 
but  the  murmur  of  satisfied  voices  assured  him  that 
all  was  right.  Still  it  was  very  odd  that  they  did  not 
come  out  and  announce  the  result  to  him.  Did  he  count 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  321 

for  nobody?  Did  they  fancy  that  it  was  nothing  to 
him  if  his  wife  and  child  were  dead  or  alive?  The  idea 
of  being  thus  completely  unconsidered  in  an  affair  of 
such  deep  concern  irritated  him,  and  he  walked  towards 
the  sofa  to  brood  over  his  wrongs.  Should  he,  or  should 
he  not,  knock  at  the  door?  At  last  he  decided  that  he 
should,  and,  after  a  timid  rap,  tried  the  handle.  He  was 
immediately  confronted  by  the  nurse. 

'  It's  all  right,  sir,  you  shall  come  in  in  a  moment 
when  the  baby  is  washed.' 

'  Yes,  but  I  want  to  know  how  my  wife  is/ 

'She's  doing  very  well,  sir;  you  shall  see  her  pres- 
ently.' 

The  door  was  then  gently  but  firmly  closed,  and 
Dick  was  kept  waiting,  and  almost  collapsing  he  stag- 
gered into  the  room  when  the  nurse  called  for  him  to 
come  in. 

Kate  laid  amid  the  sheets  pale  and  inert,  her  beauti- 
ful black  hair  making  an  ink  stain  on  the  pillows.  She 
stretched  an  exhausted  hand  to  him,  and  looked  at  him 
earnestly  and  affectionately.  To  both  of  them  their  lives 
seemed  completed. 

'  Oh,  my  darling,  my  darling !'  he  murmured ;  and  his 
heart  melted  with  happiness  at  the  faint  pressure  of 
fingers  which  he  held  within  his.  The  nurse  standing 
by  him  held  something  red  wrapped  up  in  flannels.  He 
scarcely  noticed  it  until  he  heard  Kate  say: 

'  It's  a  little  girl.     Kiss  it,  dear.' 

He  awkwardly  touched  with  his  lips  the  tiny  whin- 
ing mass  of  flesh  the  nurse  held  forward,  feeling,  without 
knowing  why,  ashamed  of  himself. 

'  Hearing  that  madam  was  taken  all  unexpected,  I 
brought  these  flannels  with  me,'  said  the  large  woman 
with  the  long-tailed  cap ;  '  but  to-morrow  I  can  recom- 


322  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

mend  you,  if  you  like,  sir,  to  a  shop  where  you  can  get 
everything  required.' 

This  speech  brought  Dick  with  a  cruel  jerk  to  the 
brink  of  the  atrocious  situation  in  which  he  had  so 
unexpectedly  found  himself.  To-morrow  he  would  have 
to  find  money,  and  a  great  deal  too.  How  he  was 
going  to  do  it  he  did  not  know,  but  money  would  have 
to  be  found. 

'  Yes,  yes,  I'll  see  to  all  that  to-morrow/  he  said, 
awakening  from  his  lethargy,  like  a  jaded  horse  touched 
in  some  new  place  by  the  spur,  '  but  now  I'm  so  tired 
I  can  scarcely  speak.' 

'  That's  so,'  said  the  landlady.  '  These  walking  tours 
is  dreadful.  He's  been  over  from  Rochdale  to-day,  not 
counting  the  runnin'  about  he  did  after  his  wife.  You 
know  they  refused  to  take  her  in  at  number  fifteen.  But, 
sir,  I  don't  well  know  how  we  shall  manage.  I  don't 
see  how  I'm  to  offer  you  a  bed.  The  best  I  can  do  for 
you  is  to  make  you  up  something  on  the  sofa  in  the 
parlour/ 

'  Oh,  the  sofa  will  do  very  well.  I  think  I  could  sleep 
on  the  tiles;  so  good-night,  dear,'  he  said  as  he  leaned 
over  and  kissed  his  wife;  'I'm  sorry  to  leave  you  so 
soon.' 

'  It  isn't  a  bit  too  soon/  said  the  doctor.  '  She  must 
lie  still  and  not  talk.' 

On  this  Dick  was  led  away.  The  nurse  and  doctor 
consulted  by  the  bed  where  the  woman  would  lie  for 
days,  too  weak  even  to  dream,  while  the  man  went  off 
into  the  Manchester  crowd  to  search  for  food.  Beyond 
the  bare  idea  of  '  going  down  to  see  what  they  were 
doing  at  the  theatre,'  he  had  no  plans.  The  scavenger 
dog  that  prowls  about  the  gutter  in  search  of  offal  could 
not  have  less.  But  he  felt  sure  that  something  would 
turn  up;  he  was  certain  to  meet  someone  to  whom  he 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  323 

could  sell  a  piano  or  for  whom  he  could  build  a  theatre. 
He  never  made  plans.  There  was  no  use  in  making 
plans;  they  were  always  upset  by  an  accident.  Far 
better,  he  thought,  to  trust  to  the  inspiration  of  the 
moment;  and  when  he  awoke  in  the  morning,  heavy 
with  sleep,  he  felt  no  trepidation,  no  fear  beyond  that  of 
how  he  should  get  his  sore  feet  into  his  shoes.  It  was 
only  with  a  series  of  groans  and  curses  that  he  succeeded 
in  doing  this,  and  the  limps  by  which  he  proceeded  down 
the  street  were  painful  to  watch.  At  the  stage-door  of 
the  Theatre  Royal  a  conciliatory  tone  of  voice  was  me- 
chanically assumed  as  he  asked  the  porter  if  Mr.  Jack- 
son was  in.  But  before  the  official  could  answer,  Dick 
caught  sight  of  Mr.  Jackson  coming  along  the  passage. 

'  How  do  you  do,  old  man  ?  Haven't  seen  you  for  a 
long  time.' 

'What,  you,  Dick,  in  Manchester?  Come  and  have  a 
drink,  old  man.  Very  glad  to  see  you.  Stopping  long 
here?' 

'  Well,  I'm  not  quite  decided.  My  wife  was  con- 
fined, you  know,  last  night.' 

'What!  you  a  father,  Dick?' 

Mr.  Jackson  leered,  poked  him  in  the  ribs,  and  com- 
menced a  list  of  anecdotes.  To  these  Dick  had  to  listen, 
and  in  the  hopes  of  catching  his  friend  in  an  unwary 
moment  of  good-humour,  he  laughed  heartily  at  all  the 
best  points.  But  digressive  as  conversation  is  in  which 
women  are  concerned,  sooner  or  later  a  reference  is  made 
to  the  cost  and  the  worth,  and  at  last  Mr.  Jackson  was 
incautious  enough  to  say: 

'  Very  expensive  those  affairs  are,  to  be  sure.' 

This  was  the  chance  that  Dick  was  waiting  for,  and 
immediately  buttonholing  his  friend,  he  said: 

'  You're  quite  right,  they  are :  and  to  tell  you  the 
truth,  old  man,  I'm  in  the  most  devilish  awkward  position 


324.  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

I  ever  was  in  my  life.  You  heard  about  the  breaking  up 
of  Morton  and  Cox's  company?  Well,  that  left  me 
stranded.' 

At  the  first  words  gaiety  disappeared  from  Mr.  Jack- 
son's face,  and  during  Dick's  narrative  of  the  tour  in 
Lancashire  he  made  many  ineffectual  wriggles  to  get 
away.  Dick  judged  from  these  well-known  indications 
that  to  borrow  money  might  be  attended  with  failure, 
and  after  a  pathetic  description  of  his  poverty  he  con- 
cluded with: 

'  So  now,  my  dear  fellow,  you  must  find  something 
for  me  to  do.  It  does  not  matter  what — something 
temporary  until  I  can  find  something  better,  you  know.' 

It  was  difficult  to  resist  this  appeal,  and  after  a  mo- 
ment's reflection  Mr.  Jackson  said: 

'  Well,  you  know  we're  all  made  up  here.  There's 
a  small  part  in  the  new  drama  to  be  produced  next 
week;  I  wouldn't  like  to  offer  it  as  it  is,  but  I  might 
get  the  author  to  write  it  up.' 

'  It  will  do  first-rate.  I'm  sure  to  be  able  to  make 
something  of  it.  What's  the  screw  ?  ' 

'  That's  just  the  point.  We  can't  afford  to  pay  much 
for  it;  our  salary  list  is  too  big  as  it  is.' 

'What  did  you  intend  giving  for  it?' 

'  Well,  we  meant  to  give  it  to  a  super,  but  for  you 
I  can  have  it  written  up.  What  do  you  say  to  two- 
ten?' 

Dick  thought  it  would  be  judicious  to  pause,  and 
after  a  short  silence  he  said: 

'I've  had,  as  you  know,  bigger  things  to  do;  but  I'm 
awfully  obliged  to  you,  old  pal.  You're  doing  me  a 
good  turn  that  I  shan't  forget;  we  can  consider  the  mat- 
ter as  settled.' 

This  was  a  stroke  of  luck,  and  Dick  congratulated 
himself  warmly,  until  he  remembered  that  £2  10s.  at 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  325 

the  end  of  next  week  did  not  put  a  farthing  into  his 
present  pocket.  Money  he  would  have  to  find  that  day, 
how  he  did  not  know.  He  called  upon  everybody  he  had 
ever  heard  of;  he  visited  all  the  theatres  and  ball-rooms, 
drank  interminable  drinks,  listened  to  endless  stories, 
and  when  questioned  as  to  what  he  was  doing  himself, 
grew  delightfully  mendacious,  and,  upon  the  slight  basis 
of  his  engagement  for  the  new  drama  at  the  Royal, 
constructed  a  fabulous  scheme  for  the  production  of  new 
pieces.  In  this  way  the  afternoon  went  by,  and  he  was 
beginning  to  give  up  hopes  of  turning  over  any  money 
that  day,  when  he  met  a  dramatic  author.  After  the 
usual  salutations — '  How  do  you  do,  old  boy  ?  How's 
business  ?  '  etc. — had  been  exchanged,  the  young  man 
said: 

'Had  a  bit  of  luck;  just  sold  my  piece — you  know 
the  drama  I  read  you,  the  one  in  which  the  mother  saves 
her  child  from  the  burning  house  ?  ' 

'  How  much  did  you  get?  ' 

'  Seventy-five  pounds  down,  and  two  pounds  a  night.' 

At  the  idea  of  so  much  money  Dick's  eyes  glistened, 
and  he  immediately  proceeded  to  unfold  a  scheme  he 
had  been  meditating  for  some  time  back  for  the  build- 
ing of  a  new  theatre.  The  author  listened  attentively, 
and  after  having  dangled  about  the  lamp-post  for  half 
an  hour,  they  mutually  agreed  to  eat  a  bit  of  dinner 
together  and  afterwards  go  home  and  read  another  new 
piece  that  was,  so  said  the  fortunate  author,  a  clinker. 
No  better  excuse  than  his  wife's  confinement  could  be 
found  for  fixing  the  meeting  hour  at  the  young  man's 
lodging,  and  in  the  enthusiasm  which  the  reading  of  the 
acts  engendered,  it  was  easy  for  Dick  to  ask  for,  and 
difficult  for  his  friend  to  refuse,  a  cheque  for  ,£15. 


XXIII 


IN  about  a  week  Kate  was  sufficiently  restored  to  sit 
up  in  bed.  Her  very  weakness  and  lassitude  were  a 
source  of  happiness;  for,  after  long  months  of  turmoil 
and  racket,  it  was  pleasant  to  lie  in  the  covertures,  and 
suffer  her  thoughts  to  rise  out  of  unconsciousness  or  sink 
back  into  it  without  an  effort.  And  these  twilight  trances 
flowed  imperceptibly  into  another  period,  when  with 
coming  strength  a  feverish  love  awoke  in  her  for  the  lit- 
tle baby  girl  who  lay  sleeping  by  her  side.  And  for 
hours  in  the  reposing  obscurity  of  the  drawn  curtains 
mother  and  child  would  remain  hushed  in  one  long  warm 
embrace.  To  see,  to  feel,  this  little  life  moving  against 
her  side  was  enough.  She  didn't  look  into  the  future, 
nor  did  she  think  of  what  fate  the  years  held  in  store 
for  her  daughter,  but  content,  lost  in  emotive  contem- 
plation, she  watched  the  blind  movements  of  hands  and 
the  vague  staring  of  blue  eyes.  This  puling  pulp  that 
was  more  intimately  and  intensely  herself  than  herself 
developed  strange  yearnings  in  her,  and  she  often  trem- 
bled with  pride  in  being  the  instrument  through  which 
so  much  mystery  was  worked;  to  talk  to  herself  of  the 
dark  dawn  of  creation,  and  of  the  day  sweet  with  ma- 
ternal love  that  lay  beyond,  was  a  great  source  of  joy; 
to  hear  the  large,  hobbling  woman  tell  of  the  different 
babies  she  had  successfully  started  that  year  on  their 

326 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  327 

worldly  pilgrimage  never  seemed  to  weary  her.  She  in- 
terested herself  in  each  special  case,  and  when  the  nurse 
told  her  she  must  talk  no  more  she  lay  back  to  dream 
of  the  great  boy  with  the  black  eyes  who  had  so  nearly 
been  the  death  of  his  little  flaxen-haired  mother. 

She  felt  great  interest  in  this  infant,  who,  if  he  went 
on  growing  at  the  present  rate,  it  was  prophesied 
would  be  in  twenty  years'  time  the  biggest  man  in  Man- 
chester. But  the  nurse  admitted  that  all  the  children 
were  not  so  strong  and  healthy.  Indeed,  it  was  only 
last  week  that  a  little  baby  she  had  brought  into  the 
world  perfectly  safely  had  died  within  a  few  days  of  its 
birth,  for  no  cause  that  anyone  could  discover;  it  had 
wilted  and  passed  away  like  a  flower.  The  tears  rolled 
down  Kate's  cheeks  as  she  listened,  and  she  pressed 
her  own  against  her  breast  and  insisted  on  suckling  her 
infant  although  expressly  forbidden  to  do  so  by  the 
doctor. 

These  days  were  the  best  of  her  life.  She  felt  more 
at  peace  with  the  world,  she  placed  more  confidence  in 
her  husband  than  she  had  ever  done  before;  and  when 
he  came  in  of  an  afternoon  and  sat  by  her  side  and 
talked  of  herself  and  of  their  little  baby,  softened  in 
all  the  intimate  fibres  of  her  sex,  she  laid  her  hand  in 
his,  and  sighed  for  sheer  joy.  The  purpose  of  her  life 
seemed  now  to  show  a  definite  sign  of  accomplishment. 

The  only  drawback  to  their  happiness  was  their  pov- 
erty. The  fifteen  pounds  of  borrowed  money  had  gone 
through  their  hands  like  water,  and  God  knows  what 
would  have  become  of  them  if  Dick  had  not  been  for- 
tunate to  make  another  tenner  by  looking  after  a  piece 
given  at  a  morning  performance.  What  with  the  doc- 
tor's bills,  the  nurse's  wages,  the  baby's  clothes,  they 
were  for  ever  breaking  into  their  last  sovereign.  Dick 
spoke  of  their  difficulties  with  reluctance,  not  wishing 
22 


328  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

to  distress  her,  but  he  felt  he  must  rouse  her  out  of  the 
apathy  into  which  she  had  fallen,  and  he  begged  of  her 
to  take  the  next  engagement  he  could  find  for  her.  It 
seemed  to  him  that  she  was  now  quite  well,  but  when  he 
pressed  for  a  promise  the  first  time  she  answered:  '  Yes, 
Dick,  I  should  like  to  get  "o  work  again,'  but  when  he 
came  to  her  with  a  proposal  of  work,  she  was  quick  to 
find  excuses.  The  baby  was  foremost  among  them;  she 
did  not  like  to  put  the  child  out  to  nurse.  '  If  the  child 
were  to  die,  I  should  never  forgive  myself,'  she  would 
say.  '  Don't  ask  me,  Dick,  don't  ask  me.' 

'  But,  Kate,  we  cannot  go  on  living  here  on  nothing. 
We  owe  the  landlady  for  three  weeks.' 

At  these  words  Kate  would  burst  into  tears,  and  when 
he  succeeded  in  consoling  her  she  would  remind  him 
that  if  she  went  back  to  work  before  she  was  quite  well 
she  might  be  laid  up  for  a  long  time,  which  would  be 
much  worse  than  the  loss  of  a  miserable  three  or  four 
pounds  a  week.  To  convince  Dick  completely  she  would 
remind  him  that  as  she  had  been  playing  leading  parts 
it  would  not  be  wise  to  accept  the  first  thing  she  could 
get.  '  If  one  lets  oneself  down,  Dick,  in  the  profes- 
sion, it's  difficult  to  get  up  again.' 

'  Well,  dear/  Dick  would  answer,  '  I  must  try  and 
find  something  to  do  myself.  You  shall  not  be  asked 
again  to  go  back  to  work  until  you  feel  like  it.  When 
you  come  to  tell  me  that  you're  tired  of  staying  at 
home  .  .  .' 

'  Don't  speak  like  that,  Dick,  for  it  seems  as  if  you 
were  laying  blame  upon  me,  and  I'm  not  to  blame.  You 
will  be  able  to  judge  for  yourself  when  I'm  fit  to  go 
back  to  work,  and  one  of  these  days  you  will  come  with 
the  news  of  a  leading  part.' 

Accompanying  him  to  the  door  she  said  she  would 
like  to  return  to  the  stage  in  a  leading  part,  but  not 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  329 

in  any  of  the  parts  she  had  already  played  in,  but  in 
something  new.  These  objections  and  excuses  brought 
a  cloud  into  Dick's  face  which  she  did  not  notice,  but 
when  he  had  gone  she  would  begin  to  think  of  his  kind- 
ness towards  her  and  of  what  she  could  do  to  reward 
him.  His  shirts  wanted  mending,  and  as  soon  as  they 
were  mended  she  made  hoods  and  shoes  for  the  baby. 

In  many  little  ways  the  old  life  that  she  thought  she 
had  left  behind  in  Hanley  began  to  reappear,  and  when 
Dick  came  into  the  room  and  found  her  reading  a  novel 
by  the  fire  she  reminded  him  of  Ralph's  wife  rather 
than  of  his  own. 

While  she  was  touring  in  the  country  she  had  given 
up  reading  without  being  aware  that  she  had  done  so. 
She  had  once  bought  a  copy  of  the  Family  Herald,  hop- 
ing that  it  would  help  away  the  time  on  the  long  rail- 
way journey,  but  having  herself  come  into  a  life  of  pas- 
sion, energy  and  infinite  variety,  she  could  not  follow 
with  any  interest  the  story  of  three  young  ladies  in  re- 
duced circumstances  who  had  started  a  dressmaking 
business  and  who  were  destined  clearly  to  marry  the 
men  they  loved  and  who  loved  them  and  who  would 
continue  to  love  them  long  after  the  silver  threads  had 
appeared  among  the  gold.  But  now  in  the  long  lonely 
days  spent  with  her  baby  in  the  lodging  (Dick  went 
away  early  in  the  morning  and  sometimes  did  not  re- 
turn till  twelve  o'clock  at  night),  a  story  in  a  copy  of 
the  Family  Herald  lent  to  her  by  the  landlady,  on  the 
whole  a  very  kind  and  patient  soul,  took  hold  of  Kate's 
imagination,  and  when  she  raised  her  eyes  a  tear  of  joy 
fell  upon  the  page,  and  in  the  effusion  of  these  sensa- 
tions she  would  take  her  little  girl  and  press  it  almost 
wildly  to  her  breast. 

Before  leaving,  the  nurse  had  given  Kate  many  direc- 
tions. The  baby  was  to  have  its  bath  in  the  morning; 


330  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

to  be  kept  thoroughly  clean,  and  to  be  given  the  bottle 
at  certain  times  during  the  day  and  night.  Kate  was 
devoted  to  her  child,  but  the  attention  she  gave  it  was 
unsustained,  a  desultory  attention.  Sometimes  she  put 
too  much  water  in  the  milk,  sometimes  too  little. 

The  christening  had  awakened  in  her  many  forgotten 
emotions,  and  now  that  she  was  an  honest  married 
woman,  she  did  not  see  why  she  should  not  resume 
her  old  church-going  ways.  The  story  she  was  read- 
ing was  full  of  illusions  to  the  vanity  of  this  world 
and  the  durability  of  the  next;  and  her  feet  on  the  fen- 
der, penetrated  with  the  dreamy  warmth  of  the  fire, 
she  abandoned  herself  to  the  seduction  of  her  reveries. 
Everything  conspired  against  her.  Being  still  very 
weak  the  doctor  had  ordered  her  to  keep  up  her 
strength  with  stimulants;  a  tablespoonful  of  brandy 
and  water  taken  now  and  then  was  what  was  required. 
This  was  the  ordinance,  but  the  drinks  in  the  dressing- 
rooms  had  taught  her  the  comforts  of  such  medicines, 
and  during  the  day  several  glasses  were  consumed. 
Without  getting  absolutely  drunk,  she  rapidly  sank  into 
sensations  of  numbness,  in  which  all  distinctions  were 
blurred,  and  thoughts  trickled  and  slipped  away  like 
the  soothing  singing  of  a  brook.  It  was  like  an  amorous 
tickling,  and  as  her  dreams  balanced  between  a  tender 
declaration  of  love  and  the  austere  language  of  the  Tes- 
tament, the  crying  of  the  sick  child  was  unheeded. 

Once  Kate  did  not  hear  it  for  hours ;  she  did  not 
know  she  had  forgotten  to  warm  its  milk,  and  that  the 
poor  little  thing  was  shivering  with  cold  pain.  And 
when  at  last  she  awoke,  and  went  over  to  the  cot  try- 
ing to  collect  her  drink-laden  thoughts,  the  little  legs 
were  drawn  up,  the  face  was  like  ivory,  and  a  long  thin 
wail  issued  from  the  colourless  lips.  Alarmed,  Kate 
called  for  the  landlady,  who,  after  feeling  the  bottle, 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  331 

advised  that  the  milk  should  be  warmed.  When  this 
was  done  the  child  took  a  little  and  appeared  relieved. 

Shortly  after  a  bell  was  heard  ringing,  and  the  land- 
lady said: 

'  I  think  it's  your  husband,  ma'am/ 

It  was  usual  for  Dick,  when  he  came  in  at  night,  to 
tell  what  Kate  termed  '  the  news.'  It  amused  her  to 
hear  what  had  been  done  at  the  theatre,  what  fresh  com- 
panies had  come  to  town.  On  this  occasion  it  surprised 
him  that  she  took  so  little  interest  in  the  conversation, 
and  after  hazarding  a  few  remarks,  he  said: 

'  But  what's  the  matter,  dear?     Aren't  you  well?' 

'  Oh,  yes,  I'm  quite  well,'  Kate  answered  stolidly. 

'  Well,  what's  the  matter  ?     You  don't  speak.' 

'  I'm  tired,  that's  all.' 

4  And  how's  the  baby  ?' 

'  I  think  she's  asleep ;  don't  wake  her.' 

But  Dick  went  over,  and  holding  the  candle  in  one 
hand  he  looked  long  and  anxiously  at  his  child. 

'I'm  afraid  the  little  thing  is  not  well;  she's  fidget- 
ing, and  is  as  restless  as  possible.' 

'  I  wish  you'd  leave  her  alone ;  if  she  awakes,  it's  I 
who  will  have  the  trouble  of  her,  not  you.  It's  very 
unkind  of  you.' 

Dick  looked  at  his  wife  and  said  nothing;  but  as  she 
continued  to  speak,  the  evidences  of  drink  became  so 
unmistakable  that  he  said,  trying  not  to  offend  her: 

'  I'm  afraid  you've  been  drinking  a  little  too  much 
of  the  brandy  the  doctor  ordered  you.' 

At  this  accusation,  Kate  drew  herself  up  and  angrily 
denied  having  touched  a  drop  of  anything  that  day. 

'  How  dare  you  accuse  me  of  being  drunk?  You 
ought  to  respect  me  more.' 

'  Drunk,  Kate  ?  I  never  said  you  were  drunk,  but  I 
thought  you  might  have  taken  an  overdose.' 


332  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  I  suppose  you'll  believe  me  when  I  tell  you  that  I've 
not  had  a  teaspoonful  of  anything.' 

'  Of  course  I  believe  you,  dear/  said  Dick,  who  did 
not  like  to  think  that  Kate  was  telling  him  a  deliberate 
lie,  and  to  avoid  further  discussion  he  suggested  bed. 
Kate  did  not  answer  him,  and  he  heard  her  trying  to 
get  undressed,  and  wondering  at  her  clumsiness  he 
asked  himself  if  he  should  propose  to  unlace  her  stays 
for  her.  But  he  was  afraid  of  irritating  her,  and 
thought  it  would  be  better  to  leave  her  alone  to  undo  the 
knot  as  best  she  could.  She  tugged  at  the  laces  furi- 
ously, and  thinking  she  might  break  them  and  accuse 
him  of  unwillingness  to  come  to  her  assistance,  he  said, 
'  Shall  I ' 

But  she  cut  him  short.  '  Let  me  alone,  let  me  alone !' 
she  cried,  and  Dick  kicked  off  his  shoes. 

'  How  can  you  be  so  unkind,  or  is  it  that  you've  no 
thought  for  that  poor  sick  child?'  she  said;  and  Dick 
answered : 

'  I  assure  you,  my  dear,  it  couldn't  be  helped;  the 
shoe  slipped  off  unexpectedly/  and  as  if  the  world  had 
set  its  face  against  her,  Kate  burst  into  tears.  At  first 
Dick  tried  to  console  her,  but  seeing  that  this  was  hope- 
less, he  turned  his  face  to  the  wall  and  went  to  sleep. 

She  had  not  drawn  the  curtains  of  the  window,  and 
the  outlines  of  the  room  showing  through  the  blue  dusk 
frightened  her,  so  ghostlike  did  they  appear.  The  cra- 
dle stood  under  the  window,  the  child's  face  just  visible 
on  the  pallor  of  the  pillow.  '  Baby  is  asleep/  she  said ; 
'  that's  a  good  sign/  and  watched  the  cradle,  trying  to 
remember  how  long  it  was  since  baby  had  had  her  bot- 
tle; and  while  wondering  if  she  could  trust  herself  to 
wake  when  baby  cried,  she  began  to  notice  that  the 
room  was  becoming  lighter.  '  It  cannot  be  the  dawn/  she 
thought ;  '  the  dawn  is  hours  away ;  we're  in  December. 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  333 

Besides  the  dawn  is  grey,  and  the  light  is  green,  a  sort 
of  pantomime  light,'  she  said.  It  seemed  to  her  very 
like  a  fairy  tale.  The  giant  snoring,  and  her  baby  stir- 
ring in  her  cradle  with  the  limelight  upon  her,  or  was 
she  dreaming?  It  might  be  a  dream  out  of  which  she 
could  not  rouse  herself.  But  the  noise  she  heard  was 
Dick's  breathing,  and  she  wished  that  Ralph  would 
breathe  more  easily.  Ralph,  Ralph!  No,  she  was  with 
Dick.  Dick,  not  Ralph,  was  her  husband.  It  was  with 
a  great  effort  that  she  roused  herself.  '  It  was  only  a 
dream,'  she  murmured.  '  But  baby  is  crying.  Her  cry 
is  so  faint,'  she  said ;  and,  slinging  her  legs  over  the  side 
of  the  bed,  she  tried  to  find  her  dressing-gown,  but 
could  not  remember  where  she  had  laid  it.  '  Baby  wants 
her  bottle/  she  said,  and  sought  for  the  matches  vainly 
at  first,  but  at  last  she  found  them,  and  lighted  a  spirit 
lamp.  '  One  must  get  the  water  warmed,  cold  milk 
would  kill  her;'  and  while  the  water  was  heating  she 
walked  up  and  down  the  room  rocking  her  baby,  talking 
to  her,  striving  to  quiet  her;  and  when  she  thought  the 
water  was  warm  she  tried  to  prepare  baby's  milk  as  the 
doctor  had  ordered  it.  Her  hope  was  that  she  had  suc- 
ceeded in  mixing  the  milk  and  water  in  right  propor- 
tions, for  the  last  time  she  had  given  the  baby  her  bottle 
she  was  afraid  the  water  was  not  warm  enough.  Per- 
haps that  was  why  baby  was  crying,  or  it  might  be  merely 
a  little  wind  that  was  troubling  her.  She  held  the  baby 
upright,  hoping  that  the  pain  would  pass  away  with  a 
change  of  position,  and  she  walked  up  and  down  the 
room  rocking  the  child  in  her  arms  and  crooning  to  her 
for  fully  half  an  hour.  At  last  the  child  ceased  to  wail, 
and  she  laid  her  in  her  cradle  and  sat  watching,  think- 
ing that  if  she  were  to  lose  her  baby  she  must  go  mad. 
.  .  .  She  had  lost  Dick's  love,  and  if  the  baby  were 
taken  away  there  would  be  nothing  left  for  her  to  live 


334,  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

for.  '  Nothing  left  for  me  to  live  for/  she  repeated 
again  and  again,  till  the  cold  winter's  night  striking 
through  her  nightgown  reminded  her  that  she  was  risk- 
ing her  life,  which  she  had  no  right  to  do,  for  baby 
needed  her.  '  Who  would  look  after  poor  baby  if  I 
were  taken  away?'  she  asked,  and  shaking  with  cold, 
was  about  to  crawl  into  bed;  but  on  laying  her  knee  on 
the  bedside  she  remembered  that  a  little  spirit  often 
saved  a  human  life;  and  going  to  the  chest  of  drawers 
took  out  the  bottle  she  had  hidden  from  Dick  and  filled 
a  glass. 

The  spirit  diffused  a  grateful  warmth  through  her, 
and  she  drank  a  second  glass  slowly,  thinking  of  her 
child  and  husband,  and  how  good  she  intended  to  be 
to  both  of  them,  until  ideas  became  broken,  and  she 
tumbled  into  bed,  awaking  Dick,  who  was  soon  asleep 
again,  with  Kate  by  his  side  watching  a  rim  of  light 
rising  above  a  dark  chimney  stack  and  wondering  what 
new  shows  must  be  preparing.  Already  the  rim  of  light 
had  become  a  crescent,  and  before  her  eyes  closed  in 
sleep  the  full  moon  looked  down  through  the  window 
into  the  cradle,  waking  the  sleeping  child.  But  her 
cries  were  too  weak;  her  mother  lay  in  sleep  beyond 
reach  of  her  wails,  heartbreaking  though  they  were. 
The  little  blankets  were  cast  aside,  and  the  struggle 
between  life  and  death  began:  soft  roundnesses  fell  into 
distortions;  chubby  knees  were  wrenched  to  and  fro, 
muscles  seemed  to  be  torn,  and  a  few  minutes  later  little 
Kate,  who  had  known  of  this  world  but  a  ray  of  moon- 
light, died — a  glimpse  of  the  moon  was  all  that  had 
been  granted  to  her.  After  watching  for  an  hour  OP 
more,  the  moon  moved  up  the  skies ;  and  in  Kate's  dream 
the  moon  was  the  great  yellow  witch  in  the  pantomime, 
who,  before  striding  her  broomstick,  cries  back:  '  Thou 
art  mine  only,  for  ever  and  for  ever!' 


XXIV 


THE  passing  of  a  funeral  in  our  English  streets  is  so 
common  a  sight  that  hearses  and  plumes  and  mutes  and 
carriages  filled  with  relatives  garbed  in  crape  have  al- 
most ceased  to  remind  us  that  our  dust  too  is  on  the  way 
to  the  graveyard;  and  it  is  not  until  we  catch  sight  of 
a  man  walking  in  the  carriage  way  carrying  a  brown 
box  under  his  arm  that  we  start  like  someone  suddenly 
stung  and  remember  the  mystery  of  life  and  death. 
Even  Dick  remembered  it,  and  wondered  as  he  plodded 
after  little  Kate's  coffin  why  it  was  that  she  should  have 
been  called  out  of  the  void  and  called  back  into  the  void 
so  quickly.  '  Whether  our  term  be  but  a  month  or 
ninety  years,  life  and  death  beckon  us  but  once/  he 
said,  and  he  fell  to  envying  Kate  her  tears,  tears  seem- 
ing to  him  more  comforting  than  thoughts,  and  he  would 
gladly  have  shed  a  few  to  help  the  journey  away:  not 
a  long  one,  however,  for  the  Lennoxes  lived  in  an  un- 
frequented part  of  the  town  by  the  cemetery. 

'  We  shall  soon  be  there,'  he  whispered,  and  Kate, 
raising  her  weeping  face,  looked  around. 

All  the  shops  were  filled  with  funeral  emblems, 
wreaths  of  everlasting  flowers,  head-stones  with  dates 
in  indelible  ink,  crosses  of  consolation,  and  kneeling 
angels. 

'  If  we  only  had  money,'  Kate  cried,  '  to  buy  a  monu- 

335 


336  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

ment  to  put  on  her  grave,'  and  she  called  upon  Dick  to 
admire  a  kneeling  angel. 

'  It's  very  beautiful/  Dick  said.  '  I  wish  we  had  the 
money  to  buy  it.  Poor  little  Kate,  it's  a  pity  she  didn't 
live;  she  was  very  like  you,  dear.' 

He  had  been  offered  an  engagement  for  Kate  to  play 
the  part  of  the  Countess  in  Olivette,  and  had  accepted 
it,  hoping  in  the  meanwhile  to  be  able  to  persuade  her 
to  take  it.  It  was  rather  hard  to  ask  her  to  play  the 
day  after  the  funeral,  but  there  was  no  help  for  it. 
The  company  would  arrive  in  town  to-morrow,  and  Dick 
thought  it  would  be  a  pity  to  let  the  chance  slip.  But 
her  grief  was  so  great  that  he  had  not  dared  to  speak 
to  her  about  it. 

'  Did  you  ever  see  so  many  graves  ?'  she  asked.  '  We 
shall  never  be  able  to  find  her  when  we  come  to  seek 
the  grave  out.  An  angel — a  headstone,  at  least,  would 
be  a  help.  Oh,  Dick/  she  continued,  '  to  think  they'll 
put  her  down  into  the  ground,  and  that  we  shall  per- 
haps never  even  see  her  grave  again.  We  may  be  a  hun- 
dred miles  from  here  to-morrow,  or  after.' 

Dick,  who  had  had  credit  of  the  undertaker,  looked 
around  uneasily;  but  seeing  that  Kate  had  not  been 
overheard,  he  said: 

'Poor  little  thing!  It's  sad  to  lose  her,  isn't  it?  I 
should  have  liked  to  have  seen  her  grow  up.' 

The  coffin  was  first  deposited  in  the  middle  of  the 
church,  and  Dick  twisted  the  brim  of  his  big  hat  nerv- 
ously, troubled  by  the  service  the  parson  in  a  white 
flowing  surplice  read  from  the  reading-desk.  Kate,  on 
the  contrary,  appeared  much  consoled,  and  prayed 
silently,  and  the  parson  mumbled  so  many  prayers  thnt 
Dick  began  to  consider  the  time  it  would  take  to  learn 
a  part  of  equal  length.  And  all  this  while  the  little 
brown  box  remained  like  a  piece  of  lost  luggage,  lonely 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  337 

in  the  greyness  of 'this  station-house-looking  church;  and 
when  the  mutes  came  to  claim  it  Kate  again  burst  into 
tears.  Her  tears  reminded  the  parson  that  he  was  here 
to  console,  and  in  soft  and  unctuous  words  he  assured 
the  weeping  mother  that  her  child  had  only  been  re- 
moved to  a  better  and  brighter  world,  and  that  we  must 
all  submit  to  the  will  of  God.  But  in  the  porch  his 
attention  was  drawn  from  the  weeping  mother  to  the 
weather.  '  A  little  more  of  this/  he  thought,  '  and 
others  will  be  doing  for  me  what  I'm  now  doing  for 
others.' 

But  there  being  no  help  for  it,  he  followed  the  pro- 
cession through  the  tombstones,  his  white  surplice  blow- 
ing, Dick  wondering  how  the  little  grave  had  been 
found  amongst  so  many,  but  the  sexton  knew.  The  par- 
son sprinkled  earth  upon  the  coffin,  and  the  sound  of  the 
withdrawn  ropes  cut  the  mother's  heart  even  more  than 
the  rattle  of  the  earth  and  stones  on  the  coffin  lid.  Kate 
threw  some  flowers  into  the  grave,  and  it  seemed  to 
Dick  certain  that  if  she  didn't  pull  herself  together  she 
would  not  be  able  to  play  the  Countess  in  Olivette  on 
the  morrow.  She  was  so  fearfully  haggard  and  worn 
that  he  doubted  if  any  amount  of  rouge  would  make 
her  look  the  part. 

He  would  have  done  anything  in  the  world  for  his 
little  girl  while  she  was  alive,  but  now  that  she  was 
dead —  Besides,  after  all,  she  was  only  a  baby.  For 
some  time  past  this  idea  had  occurred  to  him  as  an  ex- 
cellent argument  to  convince  Kate  that  there  was  really 
no  reason  why  she  should  not  go  to  rehearsal  on  the 
following  morning.  If  he  had  not  yet  spoken  in  this 
way  it  was  only  because  he  was  afraid  that  she  would 
round  on  him,  and  call  him  a  heartless  beast,  and  he 
would  do  anything  to  evade  a  sulky  look;  and  now, 
when  the  funeral  was  over  and  they  were  walking  home 


338  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

wet,  sorrowful,  and  tired,  it  was  curious  to  watch  how 
he  gave  his  arm  to  Kate,  and  the  timidity  with  which 
he  introduced  the  subject.  At  first  he  only  spoke  of 
himself,  and  his  hopes  of  being  able  to  obtain  a  better 
part  and  a  higher  salary  in  the  new  drama.  But  men- 
tion to  a  mummer  who  is  lying  on  his  death-bed  that 
a  new  piece  is  going  to  be  produced,  and  he  will  not  be 
able  to  resist  asking  a  question  or  two  about  it;  and 
Kate,  weary  as  she  was,  at  once  pricked  up  her  ears, 
and  said: 

'  Oh,  they're  going  to  do  a  new  piece !  You  didn't 
tell  me  that  before.' 

'  It  was  only  decided  last  night/  replied  Dick. 

The  spell  was  now  broken,  and  when  they  reached  home 
and  had  dinner  the  conversation  was  resumed  in  a  strain 
that  might  be  considered  as  being  almost  jovial  after 
the  mournful  tones  of  the  last  few  days.  Dick  felt  as 
if  a  big  weight  had  been  lifted  from  his  mind,  and  the 
thought  again  occurred  to  him  that  there  was  no  use  in 
making  such  a  fuss  over  a  baby  that  was  only  three 
weeks  old.  ,  Kate,  too,  seemed  to  be  awakening  to  the 
conviction  that  there  was  no  use  in  grieving  for  ever. 
The  state  of  torpor  she  had  been  living  in — for  to  stifle 
remorse  she  had  been  drinking  heavily  on  the  quiet — 
now  began  to  wear  off,  and  her  brain  to  uncloud  itself; 
and  Dick,  surprised  at  the  transformation,  could  not 
help  exclaiming: 

'  That's  right,  Kate ;  cheer  up,  old  girl.  A  baby 
three  weeks  old  isn't  the  same  as  a  grown  person.' 

'  I  know  it  isn't,  but  if  you  only  knew — I'm  afraid  I 
neglected  the  poor  little  thing.' 

'  Nonsense !'  replied  Dick,  for  having  an  eye  con- 
stantly on  the  main  chance,  he  wished  to  avoid  any 
fresh  outburst  of  grief.  '  You  looked  after  it  very  well 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  339 

indeed;  besides,  you'll  have  another,'  he  added  with  a 
smile. 

'  I  want  no  other/  replied  Kate,  vexed  at  being  mis- 
understood, and  yet  afraid  to  explain  herself  more  thor- 
oughly. 

At  last  Dick  said: 

'  I  wish  there  was  a  part  for  you  in  the  new  piece.' 

'  Yes,  so  do  I.  I  haven't  been  doing  anything  for  a 
long  while  now.' 

And  thus  encouraged  he  told  her  that  in  the  so-and- 
so  company  the  part  of  the  Countess  might  be  had  for 
the  asking. 

'  Only  they  play  to-morrow  night.' 

'  Oh,  to-morrow  night !  It  would  be  dreadful  to  act 
so  soon  after  my  poor  baby's  death,  wouldn't  it?' 

'  I  can't  see  why.  We  shall  be  as  sorry  for  it  in  a 
week's  time  as  now,  and  yet  one  must  get  to  work  some 
time  or  other.' 

Dick  considered  this  a  very  telling  argument,  and, 
not  wishing  to  spoil  its  effect,  he  remained  silent,  so  as 
to  give  Kate  time  to  digest  the  truth  of  what  he  had 
said.  He  waited  for  her  to  ask  him  when  he  would  take 
her  to  see  the  manager,  but  she  said  nothing,  and  he 
was  at  last  obliged  to  admit  that  he  had  made  an  ap- 
pointment for  to-morrow.  She  whined  a  bit  but  accom- 
panied him  to  the  theatre.  The  manager  was  delighted 
with  her  appearance.  He  told  her  that  the  photo  that 
Dick  had  forwarded  did  not  do  her  justice;  and,  hand- 
ing her  the  script,  he  said: 

'  Now  you  must  make  your  entrance  from  this  side.' 

'What's  the  cue?' 

'  "Here  it  is.  I  think  I  shall  now  beat  a  retreat  in 
the  direction  of  home."  ' 

'Ah!    I  see.' 

And,  striving  to  decipher  the  manuscript,  Kate  walked 


340  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

towards  the  middle  of  the  stage.  '  I  haven't  seen  the 
Duke  for  twenty-four  hours,  and  that  means  misery/ 

'  You'll  get  a  laugh  for  that  if  you'll  turn  up  your 
eyes  a  bit,'  said  Dick.  Then,  turning  to  the  manager 
he  murmured,  '  I  wish  you'd  seen  her  as  Clairette.  The 
notices  were  immense.  But  I  must  be  off  now  to  my 
own  show.' 

This  engagement  relieved  the  Lennoxes  for  the  time 
being  of  their  embarrassments.  At  four  they  dined,  at 
six  bade  each  other  good-bye,  and  repaired  to  their  re- 
spective theatres.  Dick  was  playing  in  drama,  Kate 
in  opera  bouffej  and  something  before  a  quarter  to 
eleven  she  expected  him  to  meet  her  at  the  stage-door 
of  the  Prince's.  On  this  point  she  was  very  particular; 
if  he  were  a  few  moments  late  she  questioned  him 
minutely  as  to  where  he  had  been,  what  he  had  been  do- 
ing, and  little  by  little  the  jealousies  and  suspicions 
which  her  marriage  had  appeased  returned,  and  tor- 
tured her  night  and  day.  At  first  the  approach  of  pain 
was  manifested  by  a  nervous  anxiety  for  her  husband's 
presence.  She  seemed  dissatisfied  and  restless  when  he 
was  not  with  her,  and  after  breakfast  in  the  mornings, 
when  he  took  up  his  hat  to  go  out,  she  would  beg  of 
him  to  stay,  and  find  fault  with  him  for  leaving  her. 
He  reasoned  with  her  very  softly,  assuring  her  that  he 
had  the  most  important  engagements.  On  one  occasion 
it  was  a  man  who  had  given  him  an  appointment  in 
order  to  speak  with  him  concerning  a  new  theatre,  of 
which  he  was  to  have  the  entire  management;  another 
time  it  was  a  man  who  was  writing  a  drama,  and  wanted 
a  collaborator  to  put  the  stage  construction  right;  and 
as  these  seances  of  collaboration  occupied  both  morning 
and  afternoon,  Kate  was  thrown  entirely  on  her  own 
resources  until  four  o'clock.  The  first  two  or  three 
novels  she  had  read  during  her  convalescence  had 


A,  MUMMER'S    WIFE  341 

amused  her,  but  now  one  seemed  so  much  like  the  other 
that  they  ended  by  boring  her;  and,  too  excited  to  be 
able  to  fix  her  attention,  she  often  read  without  under- 
standing what  she  was  reading:  on  one  side  the  memory 
of  her  baby's  death  preyed  upon  her — she  still  could 
not  help  thinking  that  it  was  owing  to  her  neglect  that 
it  had  died — on  the  other,  the  thought  that  her  husband 
was  playing  her  false  goaded  her  to  madness.  Some- 
times she  attempted  to  follow  him,  but  this  only  re- 
sulted in  failure,  and  she  returned  home  after  a  fruit- 
less chase  more  dejected  than  ever. 

'  Ah !  if  the  baby  had  not  died,  there  would  have  been 
something  to  live  for,'  she  murmured  to  herself  a  thou- 
sand times  during  the  day,  until  at  last  her  burden  of 
remorse  grew  quite  unbearable,  and  she  thought  of  the 
brandy  the  doctor  had  ordered  her.  Since  her  engage- 
ment to  play  the  Countess  she  had  forgotten  it,  but  now 
a  strange  desire  seized  her,  suddenly  as  if  she  had  been 
stung  by  a  snake.  There  was  only  a  little  left  in  the 
bottle,  but  that  little  cheered  and  restored  her  even 
more  than  she  had  expected.  Her  thoughts  came  to  her 
more  fluently,  she  ate  a  better  dinner,  and  acted  joy- 
ously that  night  at  the  theatre.  '  There's  no  doubt/ 
she  said  to  herself,  '  the  doctor  was  right.  What  I  want 
is  a  little  stimulant.'  Of  the  truth  of  this  she  was  more 
than  ever  convinced  when  next  morning  she  found  her- 
self again  suffering  from  the  usual  melancholy  and  dul- 
ness  of  spirits.  The  very  sight  of  breakfast  disgusted 
her,  and  when  Dick  left  she  wandered  about  the  room, 
unable  to  interest  herself  in  anything.  There  was  a 
yearning  in  her  throat  for  the  tingling  sensation  that 
brandy  would  bring,  and  she  longed  for  yesterday's 
lightness  of  conscience.  But  there  was  neither  brandy 
nor  whisky  in  the  house,  not  even  a  glass  of  sherry. 
What  was  to  be  done?  Kate  hesitated  for  some  time 


342  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

before  applying  to  the  landlady.  What  would  the 
woman  think?  Such  people  were  always  too  ready  to 
put  a  wrong  interpretation  upon  everything.  Still,  Mrs. 
Clarke  knew  that  the  doctor  had  ordered  her  to  take 
a  little  brandy  when  she  felt  weak;  but  resolving  not 
to  put  herself  into  anybody's  power,  she  determined 
to  wait  until  dinner-time.  Half  an  hour  of  misery 
passed,  and  then,  excited  till  she  could  bear  with  the 
craving  for  drink  no  longer,  she  remembered  that  it 
would  be  very  foolish  to  risk  her  health  for  the  sake  of 
a  prejudice.  To  obey  the  doctor's  orders  was  her  first 
duty.  This  reflection  was  very  consoling;  it  relieved 
her  mind  at  once  of  much  uncertainty,  and  ringing  the 
bell,  she  prepared  her  little  speech. 

'  Oh !  Mrs.  Clarke,  I'm  sorry  to  trouble  you,  but — 
I'm  feeling  so  weak  this  morning — and,  if  you  remem- 
ber, the  doctor  ordered  me  to  take  a  little  brandy  when 
I  felt  I  wanted  it.  Do  you  happen  to  have  any  in  the 
house  ?' 

'  No,  ma'am,  I  haven't,  but  I  can  send  out  for  it  in  a 
minute.  And  you  do  look  as  if  you  wanted  something 
to  pick  you  up/ 

'  Yes,'  said  Kate,  throwing  as  much  weakness  as  she 
could  into  her  voice,  '  somehow  I've  never  felt  the  same 
since  my  confinement.' 

'Ah!  I  know  well  how  it  pulls  one  down.  If  you 
only  knew  how  I  suffered  with  my  third  baby !' 

'  I   can  well  imagine  it.' 

The  conversation  then  came  to  a  pause,  and  Mrs. 
Clarke,  not  seeing  her  way  to  any  further  family  confi- 
dences, said: 

'  What  shall  I  send  for,  ma'am — half  a  pint  ?  The 
grocer  round  the  corner  keeps  some  very  nice  brandy.' 

'  Yes,  that  will  do/  said  Kate,  seeing  an  unending 
perspective  of  drinks  in  half  a  pint. 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  343 

'  Shall  I  put  that  down  in  the  bill,  or  will  you  give 
me  the  money  now,  ma'am?' 

This  was  very  awkward,  for  Kate  suddenly  remem- 
bered that  she  had  given  over  her  salary  to  Dick  this 
week  without  keeping  anything  out  of  it.  There  was 
no  help  for  it  now,  and  putting  as  bold  a  face  on  it  as 
she  could,  she  told  Mrs.  Clarke  to  book  it.  What  did 
it  matter  whether  Dick  saw  it  or  not?  Had  not  the 
doctor  told  her  she  required  a  little  stimulant? 

Henceforth  brandy-drinking  became  an  established 
part  of  Kate's  morning  hours.  Even  before  Dick  was 
out  of  bed  she  would  invent  a  pretext  for  stealing  into 
the  next  room  so  that  she  might  have  a  nip  on  the  sly 
before  breakfast.  The  bottle,  and  a  packet  of  sweet- 
stuff  to  take  the  smell  off  her  mouth,  were  kept  behind 
a  large  oleograph  representing  Swiss  scenery.  The  fear 
that  Dick  might  pop  out  upon  her  at  any  moment  often 
nearly  caused  her  to  spill  the  liquor  over  the  place;  but 
existence  was  impossible  without  drink.  She  couldn't 
eat,  and  she  felt  she  was  bound  to  get  rid  of  the  miser- 
able moods  of  mind  to  which  she  woke.  Before  eleven 
o'clock  Dick  was  out  of  the  house,  and  this  left  Kate 
four  hours  of  lonely  idleness  staring  her  blankly  in  the 
face.  Sometimes  she  practised  a  little  music,  but  it 
wearied  her.  She  had  courage  for  nothing  now,  and 
brandy  and  water  was  the  only  thing  that  killed  the 
dreariness  that  ached  in  heart  and  head.  Many  half- 
pint  bottles  had  succeeded  the  first,  and,  ashamed  to 
admit  her  secret  drinking,  she  now  regularly  paid  the 
landlady  out  of  her  own  money.  When  funds  were  low, 
a  little  bill  was  run  up,  and  this  was  produced  and 
talked  over  when  the  two  women  were  having  a  glass 
together  of  a  morning.  To  pay  these  debts  Kate  had 
to  resort  to  lying.  All  kinds  of  lies  had  to  be  con- 
cocted. Her  first  idea  was  to  tell  Dick  she  intended  to 
23 


344  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

continue  her  music-lessons.  He  would  never,  she  was 
sure,  ask  her  a  question  on  the  subject;  but  Dick,  who 
was  still  hard  pressed  for  money,  begged  her  to  wait 
until  they  were  better  off  before  incurring  new  ex- 
penses, and,  annoyed,  she  fell  back  on  the  subject  of 
clothes,  and  when  he  asked  her  if  she  could  not  manage 
to  go  on  with  what  she  had  for  a  bit,  it  astonished  him 
to  see  the  mad  rage  into  which  she  fell  instantly.  Was 
it  not  her  own  money?  Had  she  not  earned  it,  and  was 
he  going  to  rob  her  of  it?  Did  he  only  keep  her  to 
work  for  him?  If  so,  she'd  very  soon  put  that  to  rights 
by  chucking  up  her  engagement;  then  he  would  be 
forced  to  keep  her;  she  wasn't  going  to  be  bullied.  In 
his  usual  kind  way  Dick  tried  to  calm  her,  explaining 
to  her  their  position,  telling  her  of  his  proj  ects ;  but  the 
fear  of  discovery  was  a  fixed  thought  in  her  mind,  and 
she  refused  to  listen  to  reason  until  he  put  his  hand  in 
his  pocket  and  gave  her  two  pounds  ten.  This  was  just 
the  sum  required  to  pay  what  she  owed  at  the  Ayre 
Arms.  And  seeing  her  difficulties  removed,  her  better 
nature  asserted  itself.  She  begged  of  Dick  to  forgive 
her,  pleading  that  she  had  lost  her  temper,  and  didn't 
know  what  she  was  saying.  For  an  instant  she  thought 
of  confessing  the  truth,  then  the  idea  died  in  a  resolu- 
tion to  amend.  It  was  not  worth  speaking  of;  she  was 
getting  stronger,  and  would  soon  need  no  more  stimu- 
lants. 

For  two  days  Kate  kept  to  her  promise;  instead  of 
sitting  at  home,  she  called  on  one  of  the  ladies  of  the 
theatre,  and  passed  a  pleasant  morning  with  her.  She 
paid  visits  to  other  members  of  the  company,  and  went 
out  shopping  with  them.  But  when  three  or  four  met 
at  the  corner  of  a  street,  after  a  few  introductory  re- 
marks, a  drink  was  generally  proposed — not  as  men 
would  propose  it,  but  slyly,  and  with  much  affectation, 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  345 

and  skirting  furtively  along  the  streets,  a  quiet  bar 
would  be  selected,  and  then,  '  What  will  you  have, 
dear?'  would  be  whispered  softly.  'A  drop  of  gin, 
dear.'  On  one  of  these  occasions  Kate  only  just  escaped 
getting  drunk.  As  luck  would  have  it,  Dick  did  not 
return  home  to  dinner,  and  a  good  sleep  and  a  bottle 
of  soda-water  pulled  her  together,  so  that  she  was  able 
to  go  down  to  the  theatre  and  play  her  part  without 
exciting  observation.  And  this  decided  her  not  to  trust 
herself  again  to  the  temptation  of  her  girl  friends.  She 
asked  Dick  to  allow  her  to  accompany  him  sometimes. 
He  made  a  wry  face  at  this  proposal,  hesitated,  and 
explained  that  his  collaborator  suffered  no  one  to  inter- 
rupt their  seances;  he  was  a  timid  man,  and  couldn't 
work  in  the  presence  of  a  third  person.  Kate  only 
sighed,  but  although  she  did  not  attempt  to  dispute  the 
veracity  of  this  statement,  she  felt  it  was  cruel  that  she 
should  be  left  hour  after  hour,  entirely  alone.  But  she 
deceived  herself  with  resolutions  and  hopes  that  she 
would  require  no  more  brandy.  In  her  heart  of  hearts 
she  knew  that  she  would  not  be  able  to  resist,  and, 
docile  as  the  sheep  under  the  butcher's  hand,  she  recog- 
nized her  fate,  and  accepted  it.  A  fresh  bill  run  up 
at  the  grocer's  and  the  mornings  were  passed  in  a  state 
of  torpor.  Without  getting  absolutely  drunk,  she  drank 
sufficiently  to  confuse  her  thoughts,  to  reduce  them  to  a 
sort  of  nebulae,  enough  to  blend  and  soften  the  lines  of 
a  too  hard  reality  to  a  long  sensation  of  tickling,  in 
which  no  idea  was  precise,  no  desire  remained  long 
enough  to  grow  to  a  pain,  but  caressed  and  passed  away. 
Sometimes,  of  course,  she  overdosed  herself,  but  on 
these  occasions,  when  she  found  consciousness  slipping 
a  little  too  rapidly  from  her,  she  was  cunning  enough  to 
go  and  lie  down.  Living,  as  she  did,  in  constant  fear 
of  detection,  she  endowed  the  simplest  words  and  looks 


346  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

with  a  double  meaning,  and  she  could  not  help  hating 
Dick  if  he  asked  her  questions  or  dared  to  accuse  her 
of  being  sleepy  and  heavy  about  the  eyes.  Did  he  in- 
tend to  insult  her — was  that  it?  If  so,  she  wasn't  go- 
ing to  stand  it.  But  the  climax  was  reached  when  one 
day  he  stood  before  the  oleograph,  apparently  examin- 
ing with  deep  interest  the  different  aspects  of  the  Swiss 
scenery.  In  reality,  his  thoughts  were  far  away,  but 
Kate,  who  did  not  know  this,  grew  so  nervous  and  angry 
that  it  was  with  difficulty  she  contained  herself. 

On  half  a  dozen  different  pretexts  she  had  tried  to 
get  him  away.  There  was  a  bottle  hidden  behind  the 
blue  mountains,  and  should  he  touch  them,  discovery 
was  certain.  Under  these  circumstances  there  was 
nothing  to  do  but  fly  into  a  violent  passion,  so  snatch- 
ing up  a  plate  from  the  table  she  dashed  it  violently 
against  the  ground.  The  colour  rushed  to  her  forehead, 
and  she  abused  him  roundly  for  his  neglect.  Was  she 
so  utterly  beneath  his  notice  that  he  could  not  even  an- 
swer a  question?  The  crash  caused  Dick  to  jump  round 
as  if  he  had  been  shot,  and  he  sought  to  pacify  his  wife. 
This  was  not  easy,  and  almost  every  day  a  dispute  of 
the  same  sort  arose.  Danger  of  discovery  assailed  her 
from  all  sides,  and  this  engendered,  if  not  hatred,  a 
fierce  resentment;  and  to  deceive  herself  as  to  the  true 
reason  she  criticized  his  conduct  and  manner  of  life  bit- 
terly and  passionately  from  every  point  of  view.  Jeal- 
ousy was  natural  to  her,  and  she  was  more  subject  than 
ever  to  attacks  of  it.  Once  or  twice  it  had  blazed  into 
flame,  but  circumstances  had  quenched  it  for  the  time 
being.  Now  there  was  nothing  to  oppose  it,  and  all 
things  served  as  fuel. 

She  was  conscious  of  no  wrongdoing;  she  believed, 
and  believed  sincerely,  that  she  was  acting  legitimately 
in  defence  of  her  own  interests.  She  was  certain  that 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  347 

Dick  was  deceiving  her,  and  the  want  of  moral  courage 
in  the  man,  which  forced  him  to  tell  lies — lies  in  which 
he  was  sometimes  found  out — tended  to  confirm  her  in 
this  belief.  For  a  few  days  past  she  had  been  prepar- 
ing for  a  quarrel,  but  the  time  for  fight  had  not  yet 
come,  and  she  chafed  under  the  delay.  One  night,  how- 
ever, he  kept  her  waiting  half  an  hour  at  the  stage- 
door.  Where  had  he  been?  What  had  he  been  doing 
all  this  while?  were  the  questions  she  put  to  him  in 
many  different  forms  as  they  walked  home.  Dick  as- 
sured her  he  had  been  detained  by  his  manager,  who 
wanted  to  speak  with  him  concerning  a  new  production; 
he  had  been  asked  to  undertake  the  arrangement  of 
some  of  the  processions.  But  Kate  would  not  accept 
any  of  these  excuses,  and,  convinced  he  had  been  after 
a  woman,  she  stuck  to  her  opinion,  and  the  bickering 
continued  for  an  hour  or  more,  to  end  as  it  had  begun 
without  cause.  These  sudden  silences  were  very  wel- 
come, for  Dick  had  many  things  to  think  out;  and  noth- 
ing more  was  said  until  they  got  up  to  their  room,  and 
then  Dick,  as  usual,  forgetful  of  even  the  immediate 
past,  began  to  speak  of  his  manager's  intentions  regard- 
ing a  new  piece.  But  he  did  not  get  far  before  he  was 
brought  to  a  sudden  standstill  by  a  fresh  explosion  of 
wrath. 

'  What  have  I  done  now  ?'  he  asked. 

'  Done !     Do  you  suppose  I  want  to  hear  about  that 
woman?' 

'  What  woman?' 

'  Oh !  you  needn't  do  the  innocent  with  me !' 

'  Really !  I  give  you  my  word ' 

Your  word!  a  nice  thing,  indeed!' 

'Well,  what  do  you  want  me  to  do?' 

'  To  leave  me  in  peace,'  said  Kate,  savagely  breaking 
the  strings  of  her  stays. 


318  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

Dick,  who  was  very  tired,  took  the  hint,  and,  without 
attempting  to  argue  the  point  further,  quietly  undressed 
and  got  into  bed.  There  the  quarrel  was  resumed,  and 
for  an  hour  or  more  a  sort  of  guerilla  warfare  was  main- 
tained. He  lay  with  his  head  turned  close  to  the  wall; 
hers  danced  over  the  extreme  edge  of  the  pillow,  and 
the  same  tale  was  repeated  without  mercy. 

'  Why  don't  you  go  away  and  leave  me  ?  I  cannot 
think  how  you  can  be  so  cruel,  and  to  me,  who  gave  up 
everything  for  you !' 

It  was  the  wail  of  petulant  anger;  but  as  yet  she 
showed  no  violence,  and  her  temper  did  not  overcome 
her  until  her  husband,  worn  out  by  two  hours  of  unceas- 
ing lamentations,  begged  of  her  to  allow  him  to  go  to 
sleep.  In  the  morning,  however,  she  was  more  agree- 
able, and  it  was  not  until  she  had  paid  a  couple  of 
visits  to  the  blue  Swiss  mountains  that  she  became  again 
taciturn.  Dick  did  not  as  yet  suspect  his  wife  of  con- 
firmed drunkenness;  he  merely  thought  that  she  had 
grown  lately  very  ill-tempered,  and  that  a  jealous 
woman  was  about  the  most  distressing  thing  in  exist- 
ence; and,  anxious  to  avoid  another  scene,  he  hurried 
through  his  breakfast.  She  watched  him  eating  in 
silence,  knowing  well  he  was  counting  the  minutes  till 
he  could  get  away.  At  last  she  said: 

'  Will  you  take  me  to  church  to-day  ?' 

'  My  dear,  I'm  afraid  I've  an  appointment,  but  I'll 
try  to  come  back  if  I  can,'  and  a  few  minutes  later  he 
slipped  away,  leaving  her  to  invite  the  landlady  to  come 
up  and  have  a  glass  with  her  if  she  felt  so  inclined. 
But  feeling  somewhat  out  of  humour  for  the  conversa- 
tion of  that  respectable  woman,  she  put  on  her  hat  and 
ran  after  her  husband,  determined  to  watch  him.  But 
he  was  already  out  of  sight,  and  after  roaming  aimlessly 
about  for  some  time  she  turned  into  a  church,  and  sat 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  349 

through  the  whole  of  the  service.  She  did  not  attempt 
to  fix  her  attention  on  what  was  going  on;  her  thoughts 
were  on  Dick,  but  to  stand  and  to  kneel  was  in  itself  a 
relief;  the  pain  of  jealousy  relaxed,  and  when  church 
was  over  she  returned  home,  after  visiting  several  pub- 
lic houses,  slightly  boozed.  Dick  had  not  yet  come  in, 
which  was  unfortunate,  for  her  heart  that  had  been 
softening  towards  him  tightened  into  bitterness,  and 
madness  was  near  the  thought  that  at  the  moment  she 
was  patiently  waiting  dinner  for  him  he  might  be  in 
the  arms  of  another  woman.  She  told  the  landlady, 
who  came  upstairs  a  second  time  in  hope  of  a  sociable 
glass,  that  she  might  bring  the  soup  up  (they  always 
had  soup  on  Sundays)  ;  if  Mr.  Lennox  didn't  choose  to 
come  in  for  his  meals  he  might  go  without  them.  At 
that  moment  a  ring  at  the  door  was  heard,  and,  throw- 
ing himself  in  an  armchair,  Dick  said  he  was  tired. 

'  I  dare  say  you  are ;  I  can  easily  understand  that,' 
was  the  curt  reply. 

An  expression  of  pain  passed  over  his  face. 

'  Goodness  me,  Kate !'  he  said  in  a  perplexed  voice. 
'  You  don't  mean  to  say  you're  angry  still !' 

No  attention  was  paid  to  the  landlady,  who  was  plac- 
ing the  soup  on  the  table,  and  she,  being  pretty  well 
accustomed  to  their  quarrels,  said  with  an  air  of  indif- 
ference as  she  left  the  room: 

'  Dinner  is  served.  I  shall  bring  the  leg  of  mutton 
up  when  you  ring.' 

No  answer  was  made  to  her,  and  the  couple  sat 
moodily  looking  at  each  other.  After  a  pause  Dick 
tried  to  be  conciliatory,  and  in  the  most  affectionate 
phrases  he  could  select  he  besought  Kate  to  make  it  up. 

'  I  assure  you,  you're  wrong,'  he  said.  '  I've  been 
after  no  woman.  Do,  for  goodness'  sake,  make  it  up.' 

Then   approaching  her  chair,   he  tried  to  draw  her 


350  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

toward  him,  but  pulling  herself  away  passionately,  she 
exclaimed: 

'  No,  no,  leave  me  alone — leave  me  alone — don't 
touch  me — I  hate  you.' 

This  was  not  encouraging,  but  at  the  end  of  another 
silence  he  attempted  to  reason  with  her  again.  But  it 
was  useless;  and  worn  and  impatient  he  begged  of  her 
at  least  to  come  to  dinner. 

'  If  you  aren't  hungry,  I  am.' 

There  was  no  answer;  lying  back  in  her  chair  she 
sulked,  deaf  to  all  entreaty. 

'  Well,  if  you  won't,  I  will,'  he  said,  seating  himself 
in  her  place. 

Her  eyes  flashed  with  a  dull  lurid  light,  and  walking 
close  to  the  table,  she  looked  at  him  steadily,  fidgeting 
as  she  did  so  with  the  knives  and  glasses. 

'  I  can't  think  how  you  treat  me  as  you  do ;  what  have 
I  done  to  you  to  deserve  it?  Nothing.  But  I  shall  be 
revenged,  that  I  will;  I  can  bear  it  no  longer.' 

'  Bear  what?'  he  said  despairingly. 

'  You  know  well  enough.  Don't  aggravate  me.  I 
hate  you !  Oh  yes,'  she  said,  raising  her  voice,  '  I  do 
hate  you!' 

'  Sit  down  and  have  some  dinner,  and  don't  be  so 
foolish,'  he  said,  trying  to  be  jocular,  as  he  lifted  the 
cover  from  the  soup. 

'Eat  with  you?  Never!'  she  answered  theatrically. 
But  the  interest  he  showed  in  the  steaming  liquid  an- 
noyed her  so  much  that,  overcome  by  a  sudden  gust  of 
passion,  she  upset  the  tureen  into  his  lap.  Dick  uttered 
a  scream,  and  in  starting  back  he  overturned  his  chair. 
Although  not  scalding,  the  soup  was  still  hot  enough  to 
burn  him,  and  he  held  his  thighs  dolorously.  The  table- 
cloth was  deluged,  the  hearthrug  steamed;  and,  regard- 
less of  everything,  Kate  rushed  past,  accusing  her  hus- 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  351 

band  of  cruelty,  of  unfaithfulness,  stopping  only  to  re- 
proach him  with  a  desire  to  desert  her.     While  Dick  in 
dripping  trousers  asked  what  he  had  done  to  deserve 
having  the  soup  flung  over  him,  Kate's  hair  became  un- 
loosened and  hung  down  her  shoulders  like  a  sheaf  of 
black  plumes.     Dick  thought  of  changing  his  trousers, 
but  the  intensity  of  her  passion  detained  him.     Stop- 
ping suddenly  before  the  table  she  poured  out  a  tumbler 
of  sherry,  and  drank  it  almost  at  a  gulp.     It  was  as 
nauseous    to    her   taste    as    lukewarm   water,    and    she 
yearned  for  brandy.     It  would  sting  her,  would  awaken 
the  dull  ache  of  her  palate,  and  she  knew  well  where 
the  bottle  was;  she  could  see  it  in  her  mind's  eye,  the 
black  neck  leaning  against  the   frame  of  the  picture. 
Why  should  she  not  go  and  fetch  it,  and  insult  him  with 
the  confession  of  her  sin?    Was  it  not  he  who  drove  her 
to  it?     So  Kate  thought  in  her  madness,  and  the  lack 
of  courage  to  execute  her  wishes  angered  her  still  fur- 
ther against  the   fat  creature  who  lay  staring  at  her, 
lying  back  in  the  armchair.     She  applied  herself  again 
to  the  sherry  and  swallowed  greedily. 

'For  goodness'  sake,'  said  Dick,  who  began  to  get 
alarmed,  'don't  drink  that!  You'll  get  drunk.' 

'Well,  what  does  it  matter  if  I  do?  It's  you  who 
drive  me  to  it.  If  you  don't  like  it,  go  to  Miss  Vane.' 

'What!  You've  not  finished  with  that  yet?  Haven't 
I  told  you  twenty  times  that  there's  nothing  between 
me  and  Miss  Vane?  I  haven't  spoken  to  her  for  the 
last  three  days.' 

'That's  a  lie!'  shrieked  Kate.  'You  went  to  meet 
her  this  morning.  I  saw  you.  Do  you  take  me  for  a 
fool?  But  oh!  I  don't  know  how  you  can  be  such  a 
beast!  If  you  wanted  to  desert  me,  why  did  you  ever 
take  me  away  from  Hanley?  But  you  can  go  now,  I 
don't  want  the  leavings  of  that  creature.' 


352  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

Taken  aback  by  what  was  nothing  more  than  a  ran- 
dom guess,  Dick  hesitated,  and  then,  deciding  that  he 
might  as  well  be  caught  out  in  two  lies  as  in  one,  he 
said,  as  a  sort  of  forlorn  hope: 

'  If  you  saw  us  you  must  have  seen  that  she  was  with 
Jackson,  and  that  I  didn't  do  any  more  than  raise  my 
hat.' 

Kate  made  no  answer;  she  was  too  excited  to  follow 
out  the  train  of  the  simplest  idea,  and  continued  to  rave 
incoherent  statements  of  all  kinds.  The  landlady  came 
up  to  ask  when  she  should  bring  up  the  leg  of  mutton, 
but  she  went  away  frightened.  There  was  no  dinner 
that  day.  Amid  screams  and  violent  words  the  evening 
died  slowly,  and  the  room  darkened  until  nothing  was 
seen  but  the  fitful  firelight  playing  on  Dick's  hands ;  but 
still  the  vague  form  of  the  woman  passed  through  the 
shadows  like  a  figure  of  avenging  fate.  Would  she 
never  grow  tired  and  sit  down?  Dick  asked  himself  a 
thousand  times.  It  seemed  as  if  it  would  never  cease, 
and  the  incessant  repetition  of  the  same  words  and  ges- 
tures turned  in  the  brain  with  the  mechanical  movement 
of  a  wheel,  dimming  the  sense  of  reality  and  producing 
the  obtuse  terror  of  a  nightmare.  But  from  this  state 
of  semi-consciousness  he  was  suddenly  awakened  by  the 
violent  ringing  of  the  bell. 

'What  do  you  want?     Can  I  get  you  anything?' 

Kate  did  not  deign  to  answer  him.  When  the  land- 
lady appeared,  she  said: 

'  I  want  some  more  sherry;  I'm  dying  of  thirst.' 

'  You  shall  not  have  any  more,'  said  Dick,  interposing 
energetically.  '  Mrs.  Clarke,  I  forbid  you  to  bring  it 
up.' 

'  I  say  she  shall,'  replied  Kate,  her  face  twitching 
with  passion. 

'  I  say  she  shall  not.' 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  353 

'  Then  I'll  go  out  and  get  it.' 

'  No,  I'll  see  that  you  don't  do  that/  said  Dick,  get- 
ting between  her  and  the  door.  As  he  did  so  he  turned 
his  back  to  speak  to  the  landlady,  and  Kate,  taking  the 
opportunity,  seized  a  handful  of  the  frizzly  hair  and 
almost  pulled  him  to  the  ground.  Twisting  round  he 
took  her  by  the  wrist  and  freed  himself,  but  this  an- 
gered and  still  further  excited  her. 

'  You'd  better  let  her  have  her  way,'  the  landlady 
said.  '  I  won't  bring  up  much,  and  it  may  put  her  to 
sleep.5 

Dick,  who  at  the  moment  would  have  given  half  his 
life  for  a  little  peace,  nodded  his  head  affirmatively,  and 
went  back  to  his  chair.  He  did  not  know  what  to  do. 
Never  had  he  witnessed  so  terrible  a  scene  before. 
Since  three  or  four  days  back  this  quarrel  had  been 
working  up  crescendo,  and  when  the  landlady  brought 
up  the  sherry,  Kate  seized  the  decanter,  and,  complain- 
ing that  it  was  not  full,  resumed  her  drinking. 

'  So  you  see  I  did  get  it,  and  I'll  get  another  bottle 
if  I  choose.  You  think  that  I  like  it.  Well,  you're  mis- 
taken; I  don't,  I  hate  it.  I  only  drink  it  because  you 
told  me  not,  because  I  know  that  you  begrudge  it  to 
me,  you  begrudge  me  every  bit  that  I  put  into  my 
mouth,  the  very  clothes  I  wear.  But  it  was  not  you  who 
paid  for  them.  I  earned  the  money  myself,  and  if  you 
think  to  rob  me  of  what  I  earn  you're  mistaken.  You 
shan't.  If  you  try  to  do  so  I  shall  apply  to  the  magis- 
trate for  protection.  Yes,  and  if  you  dare  to  lay  a  hand 
on  me  I  shall  have  you  locked  up.  Yes,  yes — do  you 
hear  me?'  She  screamed,  advancing  towards  him,  spill- 
ing as  she  did  the  glass  of  wine  she  held  in  her  hand 
over  her  dress.  '  I  shall  have  you  locked  up,  and  I 
should  love  to  do  so,  because  it  was  you  who  ruined  me, 
who  seduced  me,  and  I  hate  you  for  it.' 


354  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

She  spoke  with  a  fearful  volubility,  and  her  harangu- 
ing echoed  in  Dick's  ears  with  the  meaningless  sound 
of  a  water-tap  heard  splashing  on  the  flagstones  of  an 
echoing  courtyard. 

Sometimes  he  would  get  up,  determined  to  make  one 
more  effort,  and  in  his  gentlest  and  most  soothing  tones 
would  say: 

'  Now  look  here,  dear,  will  you  listen  to  me  ?  I  know 
you  well,  and  I  know  you're  a  bit  excited;  if  you  will 
believe  me ' 

But  it  was  no  use.  She  did  not  seem  to  hear  him, 
indeed,  it  almost  seemed  as  if  her  ears  had  become 
stones.  Her  hands  were  clenched,  and  dragging  her- 
self away  from  him,  she  would  resume  her  tigerish 
walk.  Sometimes  Dick  wondered  at  the  strength  that 
sustained  her,  and  the  thrill  of  joy  that  he  experienced 
was  intense  when,  about  two  o'clock,  after  eight  or  ten 
hours  of  the  terrible  punishment,  he  noticed  that  she 
seemed  to  be  growing  weary,  that  her  cries  were  be- 
coming less  articulate.  Several  times  she  had  stopped 
to  rest;  her  head  sank  on  her  bosom,  and  every  effort 
she  made  to  rouse  herself  was  feebler  than  the  preced- 
ing one.  At  length  her  legs  gave  way  under  her,  and 
she  slipped  insensible  on  the  floor. 

Dick  watched  for  a  time,  afraid  to  touch  her,  lest  by 
some  horrible  mischance  she  should  wake  up  and  re- 
commence the  terrible  scene  that  had  just  been  con- 
cluded, and  at  least  half  an  hour  elapsed  before  he 
could  muster  up  courage  to  undress  her  and  put  her  to 
bed. 


XXV 


NEXT  morning  Kate  was  duly  repentant  and  begged 
Dick  to  forgive  her  for  all  she  had  said  and  done.  She 
told  him  that  she  loved  him  better  than  anything  in  the 
world,  and  she  persuaded  him  that  if  she  had  taken  a 
drop  too  much,  it  was  owing  to  jealousy,  and  not  to  any 
liking  for  the  drink  itself. 

Dick  adopted  the  theory  willingly  (every  man  is  re- 
luctant to  believe  that  his  wife  is  a  drunkard),  and  de- 
ceived by  the  credulity  with  which  he  had  accepted  the 
excuse,  Kate  resolved  to  conquer  her  jealousy,  and  if  she 
could  not  conquer  it,  she  would  endure  it.  Never  would 
she  seek  to  escape  from  it  through  spirit  again.  And 
had  she  remained  in  Manchester,  or  had  she  even  been 
placed  in  surroundings  that  would  have  rendered  the 
existence  of  a  fixed  set  of  principles  possible,  she  might 
have  cured  herself  of  her  vice.  But  before  two  months 
her  engagement  at  the  Prince's  came  to  an  end,  and 
Dick's  at  the  Royal  very  soon  followed.  They  then 
passed  into  other  companies,  the  first  of  which  dealt 
with  Shakespearean  revivals.  Dick  played  Don  John 
successfully  in  Much  Ado  About  Nothing,  the  Ghost 
in  Hamlet,  the  Friar  in  Romeo  and  Juliet.  Kate  on  her 
side  represented  with  a  fair  amount  of  success  a  series 
of  second  parts,  such  as  Rosalind  in  Romeo,  Bianca  in 
Othello,  Sweet  Ann  Page  in  the  Merry  Wives.  It  is 

355 


356  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

true  there  were  times  when  her  behaviour  was  not  all 
that  could  be  desired,  sometimes  from  jealousy,  some- 
times from  drink;  generally  from  a  mixture  of  the  two; 
but  on  the  whole  she  managed  very  cleverly,  and  it 
was  not  more  than  whispered,  and  always  with  a  good- 
natured  giggle,  that  Mrs.  Lennox  was  not  averse  to  a 
glass. 

From  the  Shakespearean  they  went  to  join  a  dramatic 
company,  where  houses  were  blown  up,  and  ships  sank 
amid  thunder  and  lightning.  Dick  played  a  desperate 
villain,  and  Kate  a  virtuous  parlourmaid,  until  one  night, 
having  surprised  him  in  the  act  of  kissing  the  manager's 
wife,  she  ran  off  to  the  nearest  pub,  and  did  not  return 
until  she  was  horribly  intoxicated,  and  staggered  on  to 
the  stage  calling  him  the  vilest  names,  accusing  him  at 
the  same  time  of  adultery,  and  pointing  out  the  man- 
ager's wife  as  his  paramour.  There  were  shrieks  and 
hysterics,  and  Dick  had  great  difficulty  in  proving  his 
innocence  to  the  angry  impresario.  He  spoke  of  his 
honour  and  a  duel,  but  as  the  lady  in  question  was  star- 
ring, the  benefit  of  the  doubt  had  to  be  granted  her. 
and  on  these  grounds  the  matter  was  hushed  up.  But 
after  so  disgraceful  a  scandal  it  was  impossible  for  the 
Lennoxes  to  remain  in  the  company.  Dick  was  very 
much  cut  up  about  it,  and  without  even  claiming  his 
week's  salary,  he  and  his  wife  packed  up  their  baskets 
and  boxes  and  returned  to  Manchester.  And  there  he 
entered  into  a  quantity  of  speculations,  of  the  character 
of  which  she  had  not  the  least  idea;  all  she  knew  was, 
that  she  never  saw  him  from  one  end  of  the  day  to  the 
other.  He  was  out  of  the  place  at  ten  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  never  returned  before  twelve  at  night. 
These  hours  of  idleness  and  solitude  were  hard  to  bear, 
and  Kate  begged  of  Dick  to  get  her  an  engagement. 
But  he  was  afraid  of  another  shameful  scene,  and  al- 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  357 

ways  gave  her  the  same  answer — that  he  had  as  yet 
heard  of  nothing,  but  as  soon  as  he  did  he  would  let  her 
know.  She  didn't  believe  him,  but  she  had  to  submit, 
for  she  could  never  muster  up  courage  to  go  and  look  for 
anything  herself,  and  the  long  summer  days  passed  wear- 
ily in  reading  the  accounts  of  the  new  companies,  and 
the  new  pieces  produced.  This  sedentary  life,  and  the 
effects  of  the  brandy,  which  she  could  now  no  longer 
do  without,  soon  began  to  tell  upon  her  health,  and 
the  rich  olive  complexion  began  to  fade  to  sickly  yel- 
low. Even  Dick  noticed  that  she  was  not  looking  well; 
he  said  she  required  change  of  air,  and  a  few  days 
after,  he  burst  into  the  room  and  told  her  gaily  that 
he  had  just  arranged  a  tour  to  go  round  the  coast  of 
England  and  play  little  comic  sketches  and  operettas 
at  the  pier  theatres.  This  was  good  news,  and  the  next 
few  days  were  fully  occupied  in  trying  over  music,  mak- 
ing up  their  wardrobes,  and  telegraphing  to  London  for 
the  different  books  from  which  they  would  make  their 
selections.  A  young  man  whom  Dick  had  heard  sing- 
ing in  a  public-house  proved  a  great  hit.  He  wrote  his 
own  words,  some  of  which  were  considered  so  funny 
that  at  Scarborough  and  Brighton  he  frequently  received 
a  couple  of  guineas  for  singing  a  few  songs  at  private 
houses  after  the  public  entertainment.  Afterwards  he 
appeared  at  the  Pavilion,  and  for  many  years  supplied 
the  axioms  and  aphorisms  that  young  Toothpick  and 
Crutch  was  in  the  habit  of  using  to  garnish  the  bald- 
ness of  his  native  speech. 

For  a  time  the  sea  proved  very  beneficial  to  Kate's 
health,  but  the  never-ending  surprises  and  expectations 
she  was  exposed  to  finished  by  so  straining  and  sharp- 
ening her  nerves  that  the  stupors,  the  assuagements  of 
drink,  became,  as  it  were,  a  necessary  make-weight. 
Her  love  for  Dick  pressed  upon  and  agonized  her; 


358  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

it  was  like  a  dagger  whose  steel  was  being  slowly  red- 
dened in  the  flames  of  brandy,  and  in  this  subtilization 
of  the  brain  the  remotest  particles  of  pain  detached 
themselves,  until  life  seemed  to  her  nothing  but  a  burn- 
ing and  unbearable  frenzy.  She  did  not  know  what  she 
wanted  of  him,  but  with  a  longing  that  was  nearly  mad- 
ness she  desired  to  possess  him  wholly;  she  yearned  to 
bury  her  poor  aching  body,  throbbing  with  the  anguish 
of  nerves,  in  that  peaceful  hulk  of  fat,  so  calm,  so  in- 
vulnerable to  pain,  marching  amid,  and  contented  in,  its 
sensualities,  as  a  gainly  bull  grazing  amid  the  pastures 
of  a  succulent  meadow. 

He  was  never  unkind  to  her;  the  soft  sleek  manner 
that  had  won  her  remained  ever  the  same,  but  she 
would  have  preferred  a  blow.  It  would  have  been  some- 
thing to  have  felt  the  strength  of  his  hand  upon  her. 
She  wanted  an  emotion;  she  longed  to  be  brutalized. 
She  knew  when  she  tortured  him  with  reproaches  she  was 
alienating  from  herself  any  affection  he  might  still  bear 
for  her;  but  she  found  it  impossible  to  restrain  her- 
self. There  seemed  to  be  a  devil  within  her  that  goaded 
her  until  all  power  of  will  ceased,  and  against  her  will 
she  had  to  obey  its  behests.  A  blow  might  exorcise  this 
spirit.  Were  he  to  strike  her  to  the  ground  she  thought 
she  might  still  be  saved ;  but,  alas !  he  remained  as  kind 
and  good-natured  as  ever;  and  to  disguise  her  drunken- 
ness she  had  to  exaggerate  her  jealousy.  The  two 
were  now  mingled  so  thoroughly  in  her  head  that  she 
could  scarcely  distinguish  one  from  the  other.  She 
knew  there  were  women  all  around  him;  she  could  see 
them  ogling  him  out  of  the  little  boxes  at  the  side  of 
the  stage.  How  they  could  be  such  beasts,  she  couldn't 
conceive.  They  stood  for  hours  behind  the  scenes  wait- 
ing for  him,  and  she  was  told  they  had  come  for  en- 
gagements. Baskets  of  food,  pork  pies  and  tongue, 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  359 

came  for  him,  but  these  she  pitched  out  of  the  win- 
dow; and  she  soundly  boxed  the  ears  of  one  little  wretch, 
whom  she  had  found  loitering  about  the  stage-door.  Kate 
was  right  sometimes  in  her  suspicions,  sometimes  wrong, 
but  in  every  case  they  accentuated  the  neurosis,  occa- 
sioned by  alcohol,  from  which  she  was  suffering.  Still, 
by  some  extraordinary  cunning,  she  contrived  for  some 
time  to  regulate  her  drinking  so  that  it  should  not  inter- 
fere with  business,  and  on  the  rare  occasions  when  Dick 
had  to  apologize  to  the  public  for  her  non-appearance 
she  insisted  that  it  was  not  her  fault;  and  from  a  mix- 
ture of  vanity  and  a  wish  to  conceal  his  wife's  shame 
from  himself,  Dick  continued  to  persuade  himself  that 
his  wife  had  no  real  taste  for  drink,  and  never  touched 
it  except  when  these  infernal  fits  of  jealousy  were  upon 
her.  But  the  words  that  had  come  into  his  mind — '  ex- 
cept when  these  infernal  fits  of  jealousy  are  upon  her — ' 
called  up  many  vivid  memories;  one  especially  con- 
founded him.  He  had  seen  her  frightened  to  cross  the 
dressing-room  lest  she  might  fall,  glancing  from  the 
table  to  the  chair,  calculating  the  distance.  It  was  on 
his  lips  to  ask  her  if  she  did  not  feel  too  ill  to  appear 
that  day:  that  perhaps  it  would  be  better  for  him  to 
go  before  the  curtain  and  apologize  to  the  public.  But 
he  had  not  dared  to  say  anything,  and  to  his  astonish- 
ment she  was  able  to  overcome  the  influence  of  the 
drink  (if  she  had  taken  any),  and  he  had  never  heard 
her  sing  and  dance  better.  How  she  had  managed  it 
he  did  not  know.  '  All  the  same/  he  said,  '  drink  will 
get  the  upper  hand  of  her  and  conquer  her  if  she  doesn't 
make  up  her  mind  to  conquer  it.  The  day  will  come 
when  she  will  not  be  able  to  go  on  the  stage,  or  will  go 
on  and  fall  down.'  Dick  shut  his  eyes  to  exclude  from 
them  the  horrible  spectacle.  She  would  then  be  an  un- 
24 


360  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

mitigated  burden  on  his  hands.     '  Not  a  pleasant  pros- 
pect/ he  said  to  himself. 

He  had  now  been  in  the  provinces  for  some  years 
and  had  lived  down  the  memory  of  many  disastrous 
managements.  He  had  managed  the  tour  of  the  Mor- 
ton and  Cox's  Opera  Company  very  successfully  till 
the  crash  came.  '  But  it  will  be  the  success  that  will  be 
remembered  and  not  the  crash  when  I  return  to  Lon- 
don. Many  changes  must  have  happened  in  town.  Many 
new  faces  and  many  old  faces  that  absence  will  make 
new  again.  If  only  Kate  were  not  so  jealous.  If  I 
could  cure  her  of  jealousy  I  could  cure  her  of  drink.' 
And  he  thought  of  all  the  notices  she  had  had  for  Clair- 
ette,  for  Serpolette,  for  Olivette.  He  would  like  to  see 
her  play  the  Duchess.  At  that  moment  his  thoughts 
returned  to  the  last  time  he  had  seen  her,  about  half 
an  hour  ago;  the  memory  was  not  a  pleasant  one,  and 
he  was  glad  that  he  had  run  out  of  the  house  and  come 
down  to  the  pier.  And  in  the  silence  and  solitude  of  the 
pier  at  midday  he  asked  himself  again  why  he  should 
not  return  to  town  and  take  his  chance  of  getting  into  a 
new  company  or  being  sent  out  to  manage  another  pro- 
vincial tour.  In  London  he  might  be  able  to  persuade 
his  wife  to  go  into  a  home,  and  he  fell  to  thinking  of 
the  men  and  women  who  he  had  heard  had  been  cured 
of  drunkenness.  His  thoughts  melted  into  dreams  and 
then,  passing  suddenly  out  of  dreams  into  words,  he  said, 
'  She  will  never  consent  to  go  into  a  home,  and  if  she 
did  she  would  only  be  thinking  all  the  time  that  I'd 
put  her  there  so  that  I  might  be  after  another  woman.' 
His  thoughts  were  interrupted  by  a  lancinating  pain  in 
his  feet,  and  he  withdrew  into  the  shade,  and  resting 
the  heel  of  the  right  boot  on  the  toe  of  the  left,  a 
position  that  freed  him  from  pain  for  the  time  being, 
he  looked  round  and  seeing  everywhere  a  misted  sky 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  361 

filled  with  an  inner  radiance,  he  said :  '  To-day  will  be 
the  hottest  day  we've  had  yet,  and  there  won't  be  a  dozen 
people  in  the  theatre;  everybody  will  be  too  hot  to  leave 
their  houses.'  There  was  languor  in  the  incoming  wave. 
'  We  shan't  have  five  pounds  in  the  theatre,'  he  muttered 
to  himself,  and  catching  sight  of  one  of  the  directors  he 
continued,  '  And  those  fellows  won't  think  of  the  heat 
but  will  put  down  the  falling  off  in  the  audience  to  our 
performance.  Never,'  he  added  after  a  pause,  '  have  I 
seen  the  pier  so  empty,'  and  he  wondered  who  the  woman 
was  coming  towards  him. 

A  tall,  gaunt  woman  of  about  forty-five  whose  striding 
gait  caused  a  hooped  and  pleated  skirt  of  green  silk,  sur- 
mounted by  a  bustle,  to  sway  like  a  lime  tree  in  a  breeze ; 
wore  a  bodice  open  in  front,  with  short  sleeves,  the  fag 
end  of  some  other  fashion,  but  the  long  draggled-tailed 
feather  boa  belonged  to  the  eighties,  as  did  the  Marie 
Stuart  bonnet.  Her  blackened  eye-brows  and  a  thickly 
painted  face  attracted  Dick's  attention  from  afar,  and 
when  she  approached  nearer  he  was  struck  by  the  dark, 
brilliant,  restless  eyes.  'A  strange  and  exalted  being,' 
he  said  to  himself.  '  An  authoress  perhaps,'  for  he  no- 
ticed that  she  carried  some  papers  in  her  hand ;  '  or  a 
poet/  he  added;  and  prompted  by  his  instinct  he  began 
to  see  in  her  somebody  that  might  be  turned  to  account, 
and  before  long  was  thinking  how  he  might  introduce 
himself  to  her. 

'  She's  forgotten  her  parasol ;  I  might  borrow  one  for 
her  from  the  girl  at  the  bar,'  and  the  project  seeming 
good  to  him  he  rose,  and  with  a  specially  large  move- 
ment of  the  arm  lifted  his  hat  from  his  head. 

'  You  will  excuse  me,  I  hope,  madam,  addressing  you, 
and  if  I  do  so  it  is  because  I  am  in  an  official  capacity 
here,  but  may  I  offer  you  a  parasol  ? ' 


362  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  It's  very  kind  of  you/  she  replied  with  a  smile  that 
lighted  up  her  large  mouth,  dispersing  its  ugliness. 

'  She's  got  a  fine  set  of  teeth,'  Dick  said  to  himself, 
and  he  answered  that  he  would  borrow  a  parasol  for 
her  in  the  theatre. 

'  It's  very  kind  of  you,'  she  returned,  smiling  largely 
and  becomingly  upon  him.  '  It's  true  I  forgot  to  bring 
a  parasol  with  me,  and  the  sun  is  very  fierce  at  this 
time.  It  will  be  kind  of  you,'  and  much  gratified  that 
his  proposal  had  been  so  graciously  received,  he  hobbled 
away  in  the  direction  of  the  theatre,  to  return  a  few 
moments  after  with  the  bar  girl's  parasol,  which  he 
had  borrowed  and  which  he  opened  and  handed  to  the 
lady. 

'  Might  I  ask,'  she  said,  '  if  you're  one  of  the  directors 
of  the  theatre?  ' 

'  No/  he  answered,  '  I'm  an  actor.' 

'  An  actor  in  this  theatre/  she  replied.  '  But  they 
only  sing  trivial  songs  and  dance  in  this  theatre,  and 
you  look  to  me  like  one  of  Shakespeare's  imaginations. 
Henry  the  Eighth,  almost  any  one  of  the  Henries.  King 
John.' 

'  Not  Romeo,'  Dick  interposed. 

'  Perhaps  not  Romeo.  Romeo  was  but  sixteen  or  sev- 
enteeen,  eighteen  at  the  most.  But  when  you  were 
eighteen.  .  .  ." 

'  Yes/  Dick  answered,  '  I  was  thin  enough  then.' 

'  But  you  must  not  disparage  yourself.  Heroes  are 
not  always  thin.  Hamlet  was  fat  and  scant  of  breath. 
I  can  see  you  as  Hamlet,  whereas  to  cast  you  for 
Falstaff  would  be  too  obvious.' 

'  I've  played  Falstaff/  Dick  replied,  '  but  I  never  could 
do  much  with  the  part,  and  I  never  saw  anyone  who 
could.  The  lines  are  very  often  too  high-falutin  for  the 
character,  and  they  don't  seem  to  come  out,  no  matter 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  363 

who  plays  it;  the  critics  look  on  it  as  the  best  acting 
part,  but  in  truth  it  is  the  worst.' 

'  Macduff  would  fit  you,  no;  Lear/  the  lady  cried. 

Dick  thought  he  would  like  to  have  a  shot  at  the 
king,  and  they  were  soon  talking  about  a  Shakespearean 
theatre  devoted  to  the  performance  of  Shakespearean 
plays.  '  A  theatre/  she  said,  '  that  would  devote  itself 
to  the  representation  of  all  the  heroes  of  the  world; 
those  who  spoke  noble  thoughts  and  performed  noble 
deeds,  thought  and  deed  encompassing  each  other,  in- 
stead of  which  we  have  a  thousand  theatres  devoted  to 
the  representations  of  the  fashions  of  the  moment.  So 
I'm  forced  to  come  here  at  midday,  for  at  midday  there 
is  solitude  and  sacred  silence,  or  else  the  clashing  of 
waves.  Here  at  midday  I  can  fancy  myself  alone  with 
my  heroes.' 

'  And  who  are  your  heroes,  may  I  ask  ?  '  said  Dick. 

'  Many  are  in  Shakespeare,'  she  answered,  'and  many 
are  here  in  this  manuscript.  The  heroes  of  the  ancient 
world,  when  men  were  nearer  to  the  gods  than  they  are 
now.  For  men,'  she  added,  '  in  my  belief,  are  not  mov- 
ing towards  the  Godhead,  but  away  from  it.' 

'  And  who  are  the  heroes  that  you've  written  about  ?  ' 
Dick  asked,  and  fearing  she  would  enter  into  too  long 
an  explanation  he  asked  if  the  manuscript  she  held  in 
her  hand  was  a  play. 

'  No,  a  poem,'  she  answered.  '  I'm  studying  it  for 
recitation,  one  I'm  going  to  recite  after  my  lecture  at 
the  Working  Men's  Club;  and  the  subject  of  my  lecture 
is  the  inherent  nobility  of  man,  and  the  necessity  of  man 
worship.  Women  have  turned  from  men  and  are  occu- 
pied now  with  their  own  aspirations,  losing  sight  there- 
by of  the  ideal  that  God  gave  them.  My  poem  is  a  sort 
of  abstract,  an  epitome,  a  compendium  of  the  lecture 
itself/ 


364  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

Dick  did  not  understand,  but  the  fact  that  a  lady 
was  going  in  for  recitation  argued  that  she  was  inter- 
ested in  theatricals,  and  with  his  ears  pricked  like  a 
hound  who  has  got  wind  of  something,  he  said  with  a 
sweet  smile  that  showed  a  whole  row  of  white  teeth: 

'  Being  an  actor  myself,  I  will  take  the  liberty  of 
asking  you  to  allow  me  to  look  at  your  poem,  and  per- 
haps if  you're  studying  for  recitation  I  may  be  of  use 
to  you.' 

'  Of  the  very  greatest  use/  the  lady  answered,  and 
handed  him  her  manuscript ;  '  one  of  a  set  of  classical 
cartoons,'  she  added. 
*    '  Humanity  in  large  lines,'  he  replied. 

'  How  quickly  you  understand,'  she  rapped  out ;  '  re- 
moved altogether  from  the  tea-table  in  subject  and  in 
metre.  What  have  you  got  to  say,  my  hero,  to  me  about 
my  rendering  of  these  lines? 

' "  The  offspring  of  Neptune  and  Terra,  daughters  of  earth 

and    ocean, 
Dowered   with    fair    faces   of   woman,  capping   the    bodies 

of  vultures; 
Armed  with  sharp,  keen  talons;  crushing  and  rending  and 

slaying, 
Blackening   and    blasting,    defiling,    spoiling   the   meats    of 

all  banquets; 
Plund'ring,  perplexing,  pursuing,  cursing  the  lives  of  our 

heroes, 
Ever  the  Harpyiae  flourish — j  ust  as  a  triumph  of  evil." ' 

'  Hardly  anything;  and  yet  if  I  may  venture  a  criti- 
cism— would  you  mind  passing  your  manuscript  on  to 
me  for  a  moment?  May  I  suggest  an  emendation  that 
will  render  the  recitation  more  easy  and  more  effective?  ' 

'  Certainly  you  may.' 

'  Then,'  Dick  continued,  '  I  would  drop  the  words — 
"just  as  a  triumph  of  evil,"  and  run  on — "flourish 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  365 

from  childhood,  ensnaring  the  noble,  the  brave,  and  the 
loyal,  spreading  their  nets  for  destruction," 

' "  Harpyiaes  flourish  in  ballrooms,  breathing  fierce  breath  that 
is  poison 

Over  the  promise  of  manhood,  over  the  faith  and  the  love- 
light 

That  glows  in  the  hearts  of  our  bravest  for  all  of  their 
kind  that  is  weaker " 

'  All  that  follows,'  Dick  added,  '  will  be  recited  with- 
out emphasis  until  you  come  to  these  two  magnificent 
lines : 


1  Harpyiaes  stand  by  our  altars,  Harpyiaes  sit  by  our  hearth- 
stones, 

Harpyiaes  suckle  our  children,  Harpyiaes  ravish  our  nation," 
etc.' 


Dick  finished  with  a  grand  gesture. 

'  I  think  you're  right.  Yes,  I  understand  that  a  point 
can  be  given  to  these  verses  that  I  had  not  thought  of 
before.  I  hope  my  poem  touched  a  chord  in  your  heart  ? 
Do  you  approve  of  my  manner  of  writing  the  hexame- 
ters ? ' 

'  I  think  the  idea  very  fine,  but ' 

'But?' 

'  If  you  will  permit  me?  ' 

*  Certainly.' 

'  Well,  there  are  questions  of  elocution  that  I  would 
like  to  speak  to  you  about.  I've  to  run  away  now,  but 
we're  sure  to  meet  again.' 

'I'm  on  the  pier  every  day  at  noon,  or  you  will  find 
me  in  my  hotel  at  five.  I  hope  you'll  come,  for  I 
should  like  to  avail  myself  of  your  instruction.' 

'  Thank  you ;  I  hope  to  have  the  pleasure  of  calling 
upon  you  to-morrow  afternoon.  Good-bye.' 


366  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  You  don't  know  my  name/  she  cried  after  him. 
'  Heroes  are  full  of  forgetfulness  and  naturally,  but  in 
this  tea-table  world  we  can't  get  on  without  names  and 
addresses.  Will  you  take  my  card  ?  ' 

Dick  took  the  card,  thanked  her  and  turned  suddenly 
away. 

'  Like  a  man  filled  with  disquiet,'  the  lady  said,  and 
she  watched  the  burly  actor  hurrying  up  the  pier.  '  Is 
this  woman  coming  to  meet  him  ?  '  she  asked  herself  as 
Dick  hurried  away  still  faster,  for  in  the  distance  the 
woman  coming  down  the  pier  seemed  to  him  like  his 
wife,  and  if  Kate  caught  him  talking  to  a  woman  on  the 
pier  all  chance  of  doing  any  business  with  his  new  ac- 
quaintance would  be  at  an,,  end.  But  the  woman  who 
had  just  passed  him  by  was  not  Kate,  and  the  thought 
crossed  his  mind  that  he  might  return  to  his  new  ac- 
quaintance with  safety.  But  on  the  whole  it  seemed  to 
him  better  to  wait  until  to-morrow.  To-morrow  he  would 
find  out  all  about  her.  '  Her  name/  he  said,  and  taking 
the  card  out  of  his  pocket  he  read :  '  Mrs.  Forest,  Mother 
Superior  of  the  Yarmouth  Convent,  Alexandra  Hotel, 
Hastings.'  '  Mother  Superior  of  a  Convent !  I  should 
never  have  thought  it.  But  if  she  is  a  nun,  why  isn't 
she  in  a  habit?  Classical  cartoons  and  nunneries.  I 
think  this  time  I've  hit  upon  a  strange  specimen,  one  of 
the  strangest  I've  ever  met,  which  is  saying  a  great  deal, 
for  I've  met  with  a  good  few  in  my  time.  It  will  be 
better  to  tear  up  her  card,  for  if  Kate  should  find 
it ' 

And  then,  dismissing  Mrs.  Forest  from  his  mind,  he 
wondered  if  he  should  find  Kate  drunk  or  sober.  '  Quite 
sober/  he  said  to  himself  as  soon  as  he  crossed  the 
threshold  and  in  the  best  of  humours  his  wife  greeted 
him,  and  taking  his  arm  they  went  down  to  the  pier 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  367 

and  gave  an  entertainment  that  was  appreciated  by  a 
fairly  large  audience. 

'  Why  didn't  she  ask  me  to  come  to  her  at  five  to- 
day ?  '  he  asked  himself  as  he  returned  home  with  his 
wife.  '  She  may  fall  through  my  fingers,'  and  he  would 
have  gone  straight  away  to  Mrs.  Forest,  if  he  had  been 
able  to  rid  himself  of  Kate. 

'  You'll  take  me  out  to  tea,  Dick  ?  '  she  said,  and  to 
keep  her  sober  he  took  her  to  tea.  For  the  nonce  Kate 
drunk  would  have  suited  him  better  than  Kate  sober, 
and  he  dared  not  go  down  to  the  pier  next  morning  in 
search  of  Mrs.  Forest,  it  being  more  than  likely  that 
Kate  might  take  it  into  her  head  to  sun  herself  on  the 
pier,  so  he  decided  to  wait;  the  pier  was  too  dangerous. 
If  he  weren't  interrupted  by  Kate  the  directors  might 
see  them  together,  and  they  might  know  Mrs.  Forest 
and  tell  her  that  he  was  a  married  man.  No,  he'd  just 
keep  his  appointment  with  her  at  five.  But  to  get  rid 
of  Kate  required  a  deep  plan.  It  was  laid  and  suc- 
ceeded, and  at  five  he  arrived  at  the  Alexandra  Hotel. 

'  Is  Mrs.  Forest  in  ?  ' 

The  hall  porter  told  the  page  boy  to  take  Mr.  Len- 
nox up  to  Mrs.  Forest's  rooms. 

'  All  this  smells  money/  Dick  said  to  himself  in  the 
lift. 

The  page  boy  threw  open  the  door,  and  after  walk- 
ing through  a  long  corridor  the  boy  knocked  at  a  door, 
and  Dick  walked  into  a  red  twilight  in  which  he  caught 
sight  of  a  green  dress  in  a  distant  corner. 

'  I  hope  you're  not  one  of  those  people  who  require 
the  glare  of  the  sun  always.  I  like  the  sun  in  its  proper 
place  out  of  doors/  and  while  thinking  of  an  appropriate 
answer  Dick  strove  to  find  his  way  through  the  numer- 
ous pieces  of  furniture  littered  all  over  the  carpet. 

'  Come  and  sit  on  the  sofa  beside  me.' 


368  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  If  you'll  allow  me,'  he  answered,  '  I  will  sit  in  this 
armchair.  I  shall  be  able  to  devote  myself  more  com- 
pletely to  the  hearing  of  your  poem.' 

It  was  not  polite  to  refuse  to  sit  beside  the  lady, 
but  Dick  contrived  to  convey  that  her  presence  would 
trouble  his  intellectual  enjoyment,  and  the  slight  dis- 
pleasure which  the  refusal  had  caused  vanished  out  of 
the  painted  face.  This  first  success  almost  succeeded 
in  screwing  up  Dick's  courage  to  the  point  of  asking 
her  if  he  might  remove  the  flower  vase  that  stood  on 
the  cabinet  behind  him,  but  he  did  not  dare,  and  at  every 
moment  he  seemed  to  recognize  a  new  scent.  An  odour 
of  burning  pastilles  drifted  from  a  distant  corner  into 
a  zone  of  patchouli  in  which  the  lady  seemed  to  have 
encircled  herself  and  which  her  every  movement  seemed 
to  spread  in  more  and  more  violent  flavours,  till  Dick 
began  to  think  he  would  not  be  able  to  hold  out  till  the 
end  of  the  lady's  narrative.  Patchouli  always  gave  him 
a  headache,  but  the  word  '  opera  '  restored  him  to  him- 
self, and  with  lips  quivering  like  a  cat  watching  a  spar- 
row he  heard  that  the  subject  of  her  opera  was  derived 
from  her  own  life,  and  telling  him  that  it  could  not  be 
understood  without  a  relation  of  the  events  that  had 
given  it  birth  she  drew  her  legs  up  on  the  sofa,  and 
leaning  her  head  against  the  back  commenced  in  a  low, 
cooing,  but  not  disagreeable  voice  to  tell  of  her  first  love 
adventure.  '  I  might  almost  call  my  departure  for  Bul- 
garia, some  ten  years  ago,  a  spiritual  adventure,'  she 
said. 

The  departure  for  Bulgaria  seemed  full  of  interest, 
but  from  Dick's  point  of  view  the  leading  up  to  the  de- 
parture was  unduly  prolonged,  and  he  found  it  difficult 
to  listen  with  any  show  of  interest  to  Mrs.  Forest's  as- 
surances that  until  she  met  the  Bulgarian  she  had 
thought  that  babies  were  found  in  parsley-beds  or  under 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  369 

gooseberry  bushes,  and  this  innocence  of  mind  was  so 
inherent  in  her  that  the  Bulgarian  had  not  succeeded 
altogether  in  robbing  her  of  it.  '  Nor,  indeed,  did  he 
ever  attempt  to  do  so,'  she  continued.  '  Our  friendship 
was  founded  purely  on  the  intellect.' 

This  admission  was  a  disappointment  to  Dick,  who 
had  looked  forward  to  the  story  of  a  novel  love  adven- 
ture which  might  easily  be  worked  into  a  comic  opera, 
Bulgaria  offering  a  suitable  background.  With  many 
pretty  smiles  he  tried  to  lead  the  lady  into  the  real  story 
of  her  past,  but  Mrs.  Forest  insisted  so  well  that  he 
was  fain  to  believe  that  there  had  been  no  past  in  her 
life  suitable  to  comic  opera.  Her  Bulgarian  adventure 
had  been  animated  by  love  of  liberty  and  a  noble  desire 
to  free  an  oppressed  race  from  the  ignoble  rule  of  the 
Turks ;  '  massacres,'  she  said,  '  full  of  nameless  hor- 
rors.' 

Dick  would  have  liked  her  to  name  these  horrors  but 
before  he  could  ask  her  to  do  so  she  was  telling  him 
of  the  instinct  in  every  woman  to  mother  something. 
The  Bulgarians  had  appealed  to  her  sympathies,  and 
she  had  helped  to  bring  about  their  liberation  by  her 
poetry.  In  three  years  she  had  learnt  the  language  and 
had  composed  two  volumes  of  poems  in  it. 

'  I've  looked  out  copies  of  my  Bulgarian  poems  for 
you,'  and  she  leaned  over  the  edge  of  the  sofa  towards 
a  small  table.  The  movement  disarranged  her  skirt,  and 
Dick's  eyes  were  regaled  by  the  show  of  a  thick  shape- 
less leg,  '  doubtless  swarthy,'  he  said  to  himself. 

'  The  title  of  the  first  volume,'  she  said,  handing  him 
the  books,  '  is,  Songs  of  a  Stranger.  My  friend  the 
Bulgarian,  (and  she  mentioned  an  unpronounceable 
name)  '  contributed  a  preface.  The  second  volume  is  en- 
titled, New  Songs  by  the  Stranger.  You  will  find  a 
translation  appended  to  each.' 


370  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

Dick  promised  that  he  would  read  the  poems  as  soon 
as  he  got  home,  and  begged  Mrs.  Forest  to  proceed 
with  her  interesting  story  of  the  war  in  which  she  had 
lost  her  great  friend,  her  spiritual  adventure,  as  she 
called  him. 

From  Bulgaria  she  had  set  forth  on  a  long  journey, 
visiting  many  parts  of  China,  returning  home  full  of 
love  for  Eastern  civilization,  and  regret  that  Western 
influence  would  soon  make  an  end  of  it.  '  But,'  she 
said,  '  when  I  think  of  my  own  life,  my  narrative  seems 
but  a  faint  echo  of  it  all ;  only  a  fragment  of  it  appears, 
whereas,  if  I  could  tell  the  whole  of  it ' 

But  Dick  inclined  to  the  belief  that  her  genius  was 
dramatic  rather  than  narrative,  and  to  bring  the  auto- 
biography to  an  end,  he  asked  her  how  she  had  come  to 
be  the  Mother  Superior  of  the  Yarmouth  Convent.  '  If 
I  can  only  get  her  to  cut  the  cackle  and  get  to  the 
'osses,'  he  said  to  himself,  but  this  was  not  easy  to  do. 
Mrs.  Forest  had  to  relate  her  socialistic  adventures,  her 
engagement  to  Edgar  Horsley. 

'  For  three  years,'  she  said,  '  I  was  engaged  to  him, 
and  at  the  end  of  this  time  it  seemed  to  me  that  we 
must  come  to  an  understanding.  He  was  talking  of 
going  to  Jamaica,  and  to  go  to  Jamaica  with  him  we 
would  have  to  be  married.  So  I  went  down  to  where 
he  was  staying  in  the  country,  a  cottage  in  Somerset- 
shire, at  the  end  of  a  very  pretty  lane.' 

'  Good  God,  if  she's  going  to  describe  the  landscape 
to  me,'  said  Dick  to  himself.  But  Mrs.  Forest  had  no 
eye  for  the  appearance  of  trees  showing  against  the 
sky,  and  she  was  quickly  at  the  cottage  door,  which  was 
opened  to  her,  she  snid,  by  a  suspicious-looking  woman, 
who  said,  '  I  think  I've  heard  of  you.  Mr.  Horsley  is 
out,  but  you  can  come  in  and  wait,'  '  and  in  about  an 
hour  he  came  in  and  introduced  me  to  the  woman  who 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  371 

t 

had  opened  the  door  to  me.  "  Isabel "  is  all  that  I  can 
remember  of  her  name.  "  Isabel,"  he  said,  "  has  been 
living  with  me  for  the  last  ten  years,  but  if  you  like 
to  come  with  us  to  Jamaica  you  can  join  us."  This 
seemed  to  me  to  be  an  inacceptable  proposition.  "  What 
you  propose  to  me,"  I  said,  "  is  unthinkable,"  and  I 
left  the  house,  and  have  not  seen  or  heard  of  Mr.  Edgar 
Horsley  since.  I've  looked  at  water,  I've  looked  at 
poison,  and  I've  looked  at  daggers.' 

Dick  asked  her  why  she  had  meditated  suicide,  and 
she  answered: 

'  Was  not  such  an  end  to  a  three  years'  engagement 
sufficient  to  inspire  in  any  woman  a  thought  of  sui- 
cide? And  I'm  very  exceptional.' 

A  great  deal  of  Mrs.  Forest's  life  had  been  unfolded; 
the  only  thing  that  remained  in  obscurity  was  how  she 
had  come  to  be  the  Mother  Superior  of  the  Yarmouth 
Convent,  and  to  make  that  plain,  she  said,  it  would  be 
necessary  to  tell  the  story  of  her  conversion  to  the 
Catholic  faith.  'But  that  was  after  the  convent;  the 
convent  was  intended  for  the  reformation  of  dipsomani- 
acs, female  drunkards,'  she  said ;  '  but  it  was  afterwards 
that  I  became  a  Roman  Catholic.' 

Dick  had  no  wish  to  hear  what  dogma  it  was  that 
had  tempted  her,  but  it  amused  him  as  he  returned 
home  to  think  of  all  the  strange  things  that  Mrs.  For- 
est had  told  him;  one  thing  especially  amused  him,  that 
her  real  interest  in  Catholicism  was  the  confessional. 
'  How  one  does  get  back  to  oneself  in  all  these  things,' 
he  muttered  as  he  panted  up  the  hot  steep  road.  '  A 
convent  for  the  reformation  of  female  drunkards,'  he 
repeated.  '  It's  very  strange;  she  can't  know  anything 
about  my  wife.  A  strange  woman,'  he  continued,  and  fell 
to  thinking  if  all  that  she  had  told  him  was  the  truth, 
or  if  it  was  one  of  those  stories  that  people  imagine 


372  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

about  themselves,  and  imagine  so  vividly  that  after  a 
few  years  they  begin  to  believe  that  everything  they 
have  told  has  befallen  them.  He  pulled  the  books  from 
his  pocket;  they  were  evidently  written  in  a  strange 
language,  but  there  were  people  who  could  learn  lan- 
guages and  could  do  nothing  else.  Her  Bulgarian  poetry 
could  not  be  better  than  her  English,  and  he  knew  what 
that  was  like.  '  I  suppose  as  soon  as  she  hears  I'm  mar- 
ried, and  she's  sure  to  find  out  sooner  or  later,  she  will 
be  off  on  some  other  tack.  But  is  this  altogether  sure? 
He  had  not  walked  many  steps  before  he  remembered 
that  the  lecture  she  was  giving  at  the  Working  Men's 
Club  was  on  the  chastity  of  the  marriage  state,  more- 
over she  had  admitted  to  him  that  the  Bulgarian  adven- 
ture was  altogether  a  spiritual  one.  '  I  should  say  she 
was  a  woman  with  a  big  temperament  which  must  have 
been  worth  gratifying  when  she  went  away  with  that 
Bulgarian;  I  wouldn't  have  minded  being  in  his  skin. 
She  hasn't  forgotten  that  she  was  once  a  beautiful  girl, 
that's  the  worst  of  it,  she  hasn't  forgotten/  and  Dick 
remembered  that  at  parting  she  was  a  little  demonstra- 
tive, saying  to  him  on  the  staircase :  '  But  we  aren't  part- 
ing for  long.  You  will  be  here  to-morrow  at  my  door 
at  the  same  hour.' 


XXVI 


THE  appointment  was  for  five  o'clock,  and  Kate  would 
have  liked  to  remain  on  the  pier  with  Dick  enjoying 
the  summer  evening,  but  he  seemed  so  intent  on  return- 
ing to  their  lodging  that  she  did  not  like  to  oppose  his 
wishes,  and  she  allowed  herself  to  be  led  all  the  way  up 
the  dusty  town  to  their  close,  hot  rooms  that  she  might 
try  over  Fredegonde's  music.  That  he  should  wish  to 
hear  her  voice  again  in  this  music  flattered  her,  but 
she  rose  from  the  piano,  her  face  aflame,  when  he  began 
to  mention  an  appointment. 

'  It's  too  bad  of  you,  Dick,  to  bring  me  home  and  then 
remember  an  appointment/ 

Dick  overflowed  with  mellifluous  excuses  which  did 
not  seem  to  allay  Kate's  anger,  and  as  he  hurried  down 
the  street  it  occurred  to  him  that  he  might  have  thought 
of  a  better  reason  than  Fredegonde  for  bringing  her 
home.  However  this  might  be,  his  thoughts  were  now 
with  Montgomery  and  Mrs.  Forest  rather  than  with  Kate, 
and  it  was  not  till  he  drew  the  latchkey  from  his  pocket 
that  Kate's  singing  of  the  waltz  returned  to  him:  he 
ascended  the  stairs  singing  it. 

'  I  think  it  will  work  out  all  right.' 

'  What  will  work  out  all  right  ?  You're  an  hour  later 
than  you  said  you'd  be.' 

'  Never  mind  about  the  hour,'  he  answered  and  be- 
373 


374  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

gan  to  weave  a  story  about  his  meeting  with  a  pal  from 
London,  as  he  was  leaving  the  pier  the  other  day:  he 
hadn't  spoken  to  her  about  it  before,  not  caring  to  do 
so  until  something  definite  had  happened. 

'  What  has  happened  ?  '  Kate  asked,  and  Dick,  his  face 
aglow,  related  how  the  pal  had  spoken  of  a  great  revival 
of  interest  in  comic  opera,  especially  in  French  music, 
and  that  many  city  men  with  plenty  of  money  were 
on  the  lookout  for  somebody  who  knew  how  to  produce 
this  class  of  work  and  was  in  sympathy  with  the  Folies 
Dramatiques  tradition. 

Kate,  who  believed  everything  that  Dick  told  her, 
listened  with  a  heightened  temperature.  At  Margate 
the  admirer  of  Herve's  music  became  an  American  who 
wished  to  see  Chilperic,  Trone  d'Ecosse,  Le  Petit  Faust. 
L'(Eil  Creve,  Marguerite  de  Navarre,  reproduced  as 
they  had  been  produced  under  the  composer's  direction 
when  Dick  was  stage-manager  at  that  theatre.  The 
American  was  interested  in  Herve;  for  he  not  only 
wrote  the  music  but  also  the  words  of  his  operas.  Herve 
was,  therefore,  the  Wagner  of  light  comic  opera.  And 
if  the  new  venture  received  sufficient  support  from  the 
public  Dick  would  like  to  add  other  works  by  Herve 
— La  Belle  Poule  and  Le  Hussar d  Persecute — and  hav- 
ing puzzled  Kate  with  many  titles  and  an  imaginary  biog- 
raphy of  this  musical  American  he  fell  to  telling  her  of 
Blanche  d'Antigny  singing  all  the  tunes  he  could  re- 
member and  branching  off  into  an  account  of  Le  Canard 
a  Trois  Bees.  This  last  opera  was  not  by  Herve,  but  the 
American  liked  it  and  might  be  persuaded  to  produce  it 
later  on. 

'  It  contained  a  part/  he  said,  '  in  which  Kate  would 
succeed  in  establishing  herself  one  of  London's  favour- 
ites';  but  his  praise  of  her  singing  and  acting  set  her 
wondering  if  he  were  gulling  her  once  more,  or  if  he 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  375 

still  believed  in  her.  It  might  be  that  her  continued 
sobriety  had  reawakened  his  old  love  for  her,  and  she 
remembered  suddenly  that  she  had  never  really  cared 
for  drink,  and  never  would  have  touched  drink  if  Dick 
had  not  driven  her  mad  with  jealousy.  And  the  fact 
that  her  voice  had  returned  to  her  helped  her  to  believe 
that  Dick  was  sincere  when  he  told  her  that  she  would 
be  a  better  Fredegonde  than  Blanche  d'Antigny,  who 
created  the  part  originally.  Montgomery  endorsed  this 
view  one  evening ;  he  refused  to  take  '  no'  for  an  answer ; 
she  must  sing  the  score  through  with  him,  and  several 
times  he  stopped  playing;  and  looking  up  in  her  face 
told  her  he  had  never  known  a  voice  to  improve  so  rap- 
idly and  so  suddenly.  Dick  nodded  his  acquiescence  in 
Montgomery's  opinion  and  hoped  there  would  be  no  more 
need  to  tell  Kate  lies  once  he  was  settled  in  a  lodging 
behind  the  Cattle  Market.  But  in  this  he  was  mistaken, 
for  in  London  the  need  to  keep  up  the  fiction  of  Herve's 
American  admirer  was  more  necessary  than  at  Margate. 
Dick  had  to  relate  his  different  quests  every  evening. 
He  had  been  after  the  Lyceum,  but  was  unable  to  get 
an  answer  from  the  lessee;  he  hoped  to  get  one  next 
week ;  and  when  next  week  came  he  spoke  about  the  Roy- 
alty and  the  Adelphi  and  the  Haymarket,  neglecting, 
however,  to  mention  the  theatre  in  which  he  hoped  to 
produce  Laura's  opera.  '  The  large  stage  of  the  Ly- 
ceum would  be  excellently  well  suited/  he  said,  '  for  a 
fine  production  of  Chilperic,'  and  he  besought  Kate 
to  apply  herself  to  the  study  of  the  part  of  Fredegonde. 
His  imagination  led  him  into  dreams  of  an  English  com- 
pany going  over  to  Paris  with  all  Herve's  works,  and 
Kate  obliterating  the  Blanche  d'Antigny  tradition. 
Kate  listened  delighted,  reading  in  Dick's  praise  of  her 
singing  a  hope  that  his  love  of  her  had  survived  the 
many  tribulations  it  had  been  through;  and  while  listen- 
25 


376  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

ing  she  vowed  she  could  never  touch  drink  again.  Nor 
did  her  happiness  vanish  till  morning  till  she  saw  him 
struggling  into  his  greatcoat  and  foresaw  the  long  divid- 
ing hours.  But  he  had  said  so  many  kind  things  over 
night  that  she  was  behoven  to  stifle  complaint,  and  bore 
with  her  loneliness  all  day  long;  refusing  food,  for  with- 
out Dick's  presence  food  had  no  pleasure  for  her,  how- 
ever hungry  she  might  be  she  would  would  wait  con- 
tented hour  after  hour  if  she  could  have  him  to  herself 
when  he  returned.  But  sometimes  he  would  bring  back 
a  friend  with  him  and  the  pair  would  sit  up  talking  of 
women  and  their  aptitudes  in  different  parts.  As  none  of 
them  were  known  personally  to  Kate  the  names  they 
mentioned  suggested  only  new  causes  for  jealousy,  and 
the  thought  that  Dick  was  living  among  all  these  women 
while  she  was  hidden  away  in  this  lodging  from  night 
till  morning,  from  morning  till  night,  maddened  her. 
It  seemed  to  her  that  having  been  out  all  day  Dick  might 
at  least  reserve  his  evenings  for  her;  and  one  night  she 
showed  the  man  he  had  brought  back  to  supper  plainly 
that  his  absence  would,  so  far  as  she  was  concerned,  have 
been  preferable  to  his  company. 

'  I  wouldn't  have  come  back,'  he  said,  '  only  Dick  in- 
sisted/ and  interrupting  his  regrets  that  she  did  not 
like  him,  she  said: 

'  It  isn't  that  I  don't  like  you,  but  you're  used  to 
women  who  aren't  in  love  with  their  husbands  and  I'm  in 
love  with  mine.' 

The  friend  repeated  Kate's  words  to  Dick,  who  said 
he  hadn't  a  moment  till  the  cast  of  the  new  piece  was 
settled,  and  a  few  nights  later  he  brought  back  some 
music  which  he  said  he  would  like  her  to  try  over.  '  But 
it's  manuscript,  Dick.  Why  don't  you  bring  home  the 
printed  score  ?  '  The  lie  that  came  to  his  lips  was  that 
the  score  of  Trone  d'Ecosse  had  never  been  printed,  and 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  377 

this  seeming  to  her  very  unlikely  she  said  she  didn't  care 
whether  it  had  or  hadn't,  but  was  tired  of  living  in 
Islington,  and  would  like  to  see  something  of  the  Lon- 
don of  which  she  had  heard  so  much. 

'  I've  been  in  London  all  my  life,'  Dick  said,  '  and 
I  haven't  been  to  the  Tower  or  to  St.  Paul's.  However, 
dear,  if  you'd  like  to  see  them  we'll  visit  all  these  places 
together  as  soon  as  Chilperic  is  produced.' 

With  this  promise  he  consoled  her  in  a  measure,  and 
she  watched  Dick  depart  and  then  took  up  a  novel  and 
read  it  till  she  could  read  no  longer.  She  then  went 
out  for  a  little  walk,  but  soon  returned,  finding  it  weari- 
some to  be  always  asking  the  way.  So  forlorn  and  lost 
did  she  seem  that  even  the  fat  landlady,  the  mother  of 
the  ten  children  who  clattered  about  the  head  of  the 
kitchen  staircase,  took  pity  upon  her  and  told  her  the 
number  of  the  bus  that  would  bring  her  to  the  British 
Museum,  assuring  her  that  she  would  find  a  great  deal 
there  to  distract  her  attention. 

It  did  not  matter  to  her  where  she  went  if  Dick 
wasn't  with  her;  without  Dick  all  places  were  the  same 
to  her,  and  the  British  Museum  would  do  as  well  as 
any  other  place.  She  must  go  somewhere,  and  the  Brit- 
ish Museum  would  do  as  well  as  the  Tower  or  St.  Paul's. 
There  were  things  to  be  seen  and  she  didn't  mind  what 
she  saw  as  long  as  she  saw  something  new.  She  couldn't 
look  any  longer  at  the  two  pictures  on  the  walls — "  With 
the  Stream  "  and  "Against  the  Stream,"  the  wax  fruit, 
the  mahogany  sideboard,  the  dingy  furniture,  the  torn 
curtains ;  and  of  all  she  must  get  out  of  hearing  of  the 
children  and  surly  landlady  who  a  few  minutes  ago  was 
less  surly,  and  had  told  her  of  the  British  Museum,  and 
all  the  wonderful  things  that  were  to  be  seen  there. 
But  she  hadn't  the  bus  fare,  and  didn't  like  to  ask  the 
landlady  for  a  few  pence.  As  long  as  she  hadn't  any 


378  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

money  she  was  out  of  temptation,  and  it  was  by  her 
own  wish  that  Dick  left  her  without  money.  As  she 
walked  to  and  fro  she  caught  sight  of  his  clothes  thrown 
over  the  back  of  a  chair  in  the  bedroom;  and  he  might 
have  left  a  few  pence  in  one  of  his  pockets. 

She  searched  the  trousers;  how  careless  Dick  was: 
several  shillings:  one,  two,  three,  four,  five,  five  and 
sixpence.  She  would  take  sixpence.  As  she  walked  out 
of  the  bedroom  clinking  the  coppers  the  desire  to  read 
his  letters  fell  upon  her,  and  yielding  to  it  she  put  her 
hand  into  the  inside  pocket  of  his  coat  and  drew  from  it 
a  packet  of  letters  and  some  papers,  manuscripts,  poems. 

'  Now,  who,'  she  asked,  '  can  have  been  sending  him 
these  Classical  Cartoons,  number  four?  ' 

She  read  of  heroes,  the  glory  of  manhood  collected 
along  the  shores  of  the  terrible  river  that  guards  the 
dominions  of  Pluto.  She  knew  nothing  of  Pluto,  but 
recognized  the  handwriting  as  a  woman's  and  the  lines: 

*  Zeus,    the   monarch   of   heaven,    clothed    in    the    form    of   a 

mortal, 

Kneeling,  caressed   and  caressing,  drank   from  her  lips  joy 
and  love-draughts,' 

caused  Kate  to  dash  the  manuscript  from  her.  A  letter 
accompanied  the  poem  and  read: 

'  My  dear,  nothing  can  be  done  without  you,  and  if 
you  don't  come  at  once  we  shall  miss  getting  a  theatre 
this  season,  and  without  a  theatre  we  are  helpless.' 

Kate  did  not  need  to  read  any  more.  The  letter  left 
no  doubt  that  Dick  was  engaged  in  an  intrigue  with  a 
woman  who  had  written  some  play  or  opera  which  he 
was  going  to  produce,  and  the  envelope  out  of  which 
she  had  taken  the  letter  bore  the  direction:  'Richard 
Lennox,  Esq.,  Post  Restante,  Margate.' 

'  So  it  was  lies  all  the  while  at  Margate,'  she  said  to 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  379 

herself,  walking  about  the  room,  stopping  now  and  again 
to  stare  at  some  object  which  she  did  not  see.  'There 
was  no  American,  and  no  Chilperic,  no  Trone  d'Ecosse,  no 
L'CEil  Creve,  no  La  Belle  Poule,  no  Marguerite  de  Na- 
varre. Lies,  lies  !  Nothing  but  lies !  He  never  intended 
to  produce  one  of  them,  or  that  I  should  play  "  Frede- 
gonde."  Lies !  Lies !  And  the  great  part  in  Le  Canard 
a  Trois  Bees  which  would  establish  my  reputation  in 
London.  Lies!  He  never  intended  to  produce  one  of 
these  operas,'  she  cried.  '  He  shut  me  up  here  in  this 
lodging  so  that  I  should  be  out  of  the  way  while  he 
carried  on  with  What's-her-name.' 

Her  brain  at  that  instant  seemed  to  catch  fire,  and 
snatching  up  some  money  from  the  mantel-piece,  she 
rushed  out  of  the  house  tumbling  over  the  children  as 
she  made  her  way  to  the  front  door  without  hat  or 
jacket.  The  sunlight  awoke  her  and  she  looked  round 
puzzled  and  only  just  escaped  being  run  over  by  a  pass- 
ing cart.  In  front  of  her  was  a  public-house.  Drink! 
She  went  in  and  drank  till  she  recovered  her  reason  and 
began  to  lose  it  again. 

A  '  bottle  of  gin,  please,'  she  said,  and  put  the  money 
on  the  counter  and  returned  to  her  lodging  almost  mad 
with  jealousy  and  rage  and  thirst  for  revenge.  '  No, 
she  wouldn't  drink  any  more,  for  if  she  were  to  drink 
any  more  she'd  not  be  able  to  have  it  out  with  Dick, 
and  this  time  she  would  have  it  out  with  him  and  no 
mistake.  If  he  were  to  kill  her  it  didn't  matter;  but 
she  would  have  it  out  with  him.'  As  she  sat  by  the 
table  waiting  hour  after  hour  for  him  to  return,  her 
whole  mind  was  expressed  by  the  words — '  I'll  have  it 
out  with  him ' — and  she  didn't  weary  of  repeating  them, 
for  it  seemed  to  her  that  they  kept  her  resolution  from 
dying:  what  she  feared  most  was  that  his  presence  might 


380  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

quell  her  resolution.  To  have  it  out  with  him  as  she  was 
minded,  she  mustn't  be  drunk,  nor  yet  too  sober. 

He  might  bring  home  a  friend  with  him,  but  that 
wouldn't  stay  her  hand.  Montgomery  too  had  deceived 
her.  Dick  was  rehearsing  his  opera;  he  had  written 
music  for  that  Mrs.  Forest  and  this  was  the  end  of  their 
friendship. 

Many  hours  went  by,  but  they  didn't  seem  long,  pas- 
sion gave  her  patience.  At  last  a  sound  of  footsteps 
caused  her  to  start  to  her  feet.  It  was  Dick. 

'  This  is  going  to  be  an  all-night  affair/  he  said  to 
himself  as  soon  as  he  crossed  the  threshold.  '  I  hope 
you  didn't  wait  supper  for  me?'  His  manner  was  most 
conciliatory,  and  perhaps  it  was  that  conciliatory  man- 
ner that  inflamed  her. 

'  Business,  I  suppose ;  I  know  damned  well  what  your 
business  was,  I  know  all  about  it,  you  and  your  woman, 
Mrs.  Forest;  the  theatre  she's  taken  for  you;  where  you 
are  rehearsing  Montgomery's  opera.  You  cannot  deny 
it,'  she  cried.  '  Mrs.  Forest  is  her  name,'  and  reading 
in  his  face  certain  signs  of  his  culpability  her  anger  in- 
creased, her  teeth  were  set  and  her  eyes  glared. 

Dick  feared  she  was  going  mad,  and  with  an  instinc- 
tive movement  he  put  out  his  arms  to  restrain  her. 

'  Don't  touch  me !  don't  touch  me ! '  she  screamed,  and 
struck  at  him  with  clenched  fists,  and  then  feeling  that 
her  blows  were  but  puny  she  went  for  him  like  a  bird 
of  prey,  all  her  fingers  distended. 

'  Take  that,  and  that,  and  that,  you  beast !  Oh,  you 
beast !  you  beast !  you  beast ! ' 

Her  shrieks  rang  through  the  house  as  she  pursued 
him  round  the  furniture;  he  retreating  like  a  lumbering 
bull  striving  to  escape  from  her  claws. 

'  How  do  you  like  that  ?  '  she  cried,  as  she  tore  at  him 
with  her  nails  again.  '  That  will  teach  you  to  go  mess- 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  381 

ing  about  after  other  women.  I'll  settle  you  before  I've 
done  with  you.' 

Chairs  were  thrown  down,  the  coal-scuttle  was  upset, 
and  at  last,  as  Dick  tried  to  get  out  of  the  room,  Kate 
stumbled  against  a  rosewood  cabinet,  sending  one  of 
the  green  vases  with  its  glass  shade  crashing  to  the 
ground,  summoning  the  landlady. 

Dick  spoke  about  his  wife  having  had  a  fit. 

'  Fit  or  no  fit,  I  hope  you'll  leave  my  house  to-mor- 
row.' 

'  Meanwhile/  Dick  answered,  '  will  you  leave  my 
room  ? '  and  he  shut  the  door  in  the  face  of  the  indignant 
householder. 

Kate,  who  had  now  recovered  herself  a  little,  poured 
out  a  large  glass  of  raw  gin,  and  to  her  surprise  Dick 
made  no  attempt  to  prevent  her  drinking  it. 

'  As  soon  as  she  drinks  herself  helpless  the  better/ 
he  thought,  as  he  went  into  the  bedroom  to  attend  to 
his  wounds.  The  scratches  she  had  given  him  before 
their  marriage  were  nothing  to  these.  One  side  of  his 
nose  was  well-nigh  ripped  open,  and  there  were  two 
big,  deep  gashes  running  right  across  his  face,  from  the 
cheek-bone  to  his  ear.  It  was  very  lucky,  he  thought, 
she  hadn't  had  his  eye  out,  and  it  might  be  as  well  to 
go  round  to  the  apothecary's  and  get  some  vaseline, 
some  antiseptic  treatment,  for  nails  are  poisonous,  he 
added,  and  his  eyes  going  round  the  room  caught  sight 
of  his  clothes  in  disorder.  '  Ah !  she  has  been  at  my 
clothes/  and  he  took  up  the  classical  cartoons  and  his 
letters  and  put  them  away  into  his  pocket,  and  went  into 
the  sitting-room,  and  tried  to  explain  to  his  wife  that  he 
was  going  out  to  see  if  he  could  get  something  from  the 
apothecary  to  heal  the  wounds  she  had  given  him. 

Kate  did  not  answer.  '  She's  dead  drunk/  he  said, 
and  it  seemed  to  him  that  he  couldn't  do  better  than 


382  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

to  undress  her  and  put  her  into  bed,  and  when  he  had 
done  this  he  lay  down  upon  a  sofa  hoping  that  he 
would  wake  first,  and  be  able  to  get  out  of  the  house 
without  disturbing  her,  leaving  word  with  the  landlady 
that  he  would  come  back  as  soon  as  his  rehearsal  was 
over,  and  make  arrangements  to  leave  her  house  since 
she  didn't  wish  them  to  stay  any  longer.  He  fell  asleep 
thinking  that  he  might  find  his  landlady  in  a  different 
mood,  and  might  persuade  her  in  the  morning  to  allow 
them  to  stay  on.  The  vase,  of  course,  should  be  paid 
for.  There  was  a  kindly  look  in  her  pleasant  country 
face  when  she  wasn't  angry ;  his  torn  face  might  win  her 
pity,  and  not  wishing  to  increase  his  troubles,  she  would 
probably  allow  them  to  stay  on;  if  she  didn't  he  would 
have  to  find  another  lodging  that  very  afternoon,  which 
would  be  unfortunate,  for  his  engagements  were  many. 
As  it  was  he'd  have  to  hasten  to  keep  an  appointment 
which  he  had  made  with  Mrs.  Forest  in  the  National  Gal- 
lery. She  really  will  have  to  make  some  alterations  in 

her  second  act,  he  said  going  to  the  glass Kate 

had  clawed  him  with  a  vengeance,  and  he'd  have  to  tell 
Laura  how  he  came  by  his  torn  face;  and  after  some 
consideration  it  seemed  to  him  that  it  would  be  well  to 
admit  that  he  had  received  these  wounds  in  a  conflict 
with  a  wife  who  was,  unfortunately,  given  to  drink.  It 
was  on  these  thoughts  he  fell  asleep,  and  overslept  him- 
self, he  feared,  but  Kate  was  still  asleep,  and  without 
awakening  her  he  stole  downstairs  to  visit  the  landlady 
in  her  parlour,  but  hearing  his  step  she  bounced  out 
of  the  room  with  a  view,  no  doubt,  to  repeating  the 
Avarning  she  had  given  him  overnight,  but  the  sight  of 
his  torn  face  brought  pity  into  hers,  and  she  said: 
'  Oh,  Mr.  Lennox,  I'm  so  sorry  for  you.' 
A  little  sympathetic  conversation  followed;  and  Dick 
went  off  to  meet  Laura,  whom  he  recognized  in  the 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  383 

woman  who  leaned  over  the  railings  between  the  pillars, 
seemingly  attracted  by  the  view  across  Trafalgar  Square. 
She  still  wore  her  green  silk  dress,  the  one  which  he  had 
first  seen  her  in  on  the  pier  at  Hastings,  and  the  long 
draggled  feather  boa. 

'  She  doesn't  spend  money  on  dress,'  he  thought  as 
he  lifted  his  hat  with  not  quite  the  same  ceremonious 
gesture  as  usual,  for  he  didn't  wish  to  exhibit  his  scars 
yet. 

'  So  here  you  are,  Dick,  and  I  waiting  for  you  on  the 
steps  of  this  gallery,  glorious  with  all  the  imaginations 
of  the  heroes.' 

'  She  hasn't  seen  the  scratches  yet/  he  said  to  him- 
self, and  turned  from  the  light  instinctively,  preferring 
that  she  should  make  the  discovery  indoors,  rather  than 
out  of  doors.  His  wounds  would  appear  less  in  the  gal- 
lery than  in  the  open  air.  '  Why  didn't  she  take  a  little 
more  trouble  with  her  make-up  ? '  he  asked  himself,  and 
then  reproved  himself  for  describing  it  as  a  make-up. 
'  She's  not  made  up,'  he  said  to  himself,  '  she's  painted,' 
and  he  wondered  how  it  was  that  she  could  plaster  her 
dark  skin  so  flagrantly  with  carmine,  and  put  her 
eyebrows  so  high  up  in  the  forehead.  '  Yet  the  face,' 
he  said,  '  is  a  finely  moulded  one,  and  compelling  when 
she  forgets  her  cosmetics,'  and  while  Dick  regretted  that 
she  didn't  show  more  skill  with  these,  he  heard  her  tell- 
ing him  that  she  would  prefer  to  stop  and  talk  with 
him  in  the  gallery  devoted  to  the  Italian  pictures  than 
elsewhere;  'the  sublime  conceptions  of  Raphael  raised 
me  above  myself.'  And  then,  as  if  afraid  that  her 
words  would  seem  vainglorious  to  Dick,  she  said :  '  You're 
always  in  the  same  mood,  never  rising  above  yourself  or 
sinking  below  yourself,  finding  it  difficult  to  understand 
the  pain  that  those  who  live  mostly  in  the  spiritual  plane 
experience  lest  they  fall  into  a  lower  plane.  Not  that 


384  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

I  regard  you,  Dick,  as  a  lower  plane,  but  your  plane 
is  not  mine,  and  that  is  why  you're  so  necessary  to 
me,  and  why,  perhaps,  I'm  so  necessary  to  you,  or  would 
be  if  I'm  not.  Come,  let  us  sit  here  in  front  of  the 
Raphael  and  talk,  since  we  must,  of  comic  opera.  It's  a 
pity  we're  not  talking  of  the  Parcce,  who  have  been  in  my 
mind  all  the  morning/  and  she  began  to  recite  some 
verses  that  she  had  written.  But,  interrupting  herself 
suddenly,  she  cried :  '  Dick,  who  has  been  scratching 
you?  How  did  your  face  get  torn  like  that — who's 
been  scratching  you  ?  '  and  Dick  answered : 

'  My  wife.' 

'Your  wife?  But  you  never  told  me  that  you  were 
married.' 

'  If  I'd  told  you  I  was  married  I  would  have  had  to 
tell  you  that  my  wife  is  a  drunkard  and  is  rapidly  drink- 
ing herself  to  death,  a  thing  that  no  man  likes  to  speak 
about.' 

'  My  poor  friend,  I  didn't  mean  to  reprove  you.  Ho\v 
did  all  this  come  about  ?  ' 

It  wouldn't  do  to  admit  that  Kate  had  discovered 
Laura's  letters  and  poems  in  his  pockets,  and  so  he 
told  the  story  of  a  former  experience  with  his  wife, 
and  had  barely  finished  it  when  Laura  begged  of  him 
to  tell  her  how  he  had  met  his  wife.  And  when  he 
had  told  her  the  story,  to  which  she  listened  solemnly, 
she  answered,  and  there  was  the  same  gravity  in  her 
voice  as  in  her  face:  'All  this  comes,  my  dear  Dick, 
of  lewdness.' 

'  But,  Laura,  I  was  faithful  to  my  wife.' 

'  But  she  was  the  wife  of  another  man/  Laura  re- 
plied, 'not  that  that  is  an  insuperable  barrier,  but  you 
brought,  I  fear,  lewdness  into  your  conjugal  life,  and 
lewdness  is  fatal  to  happiness  whether  it  be  indulged, 
within  or  outside  the  bonds  of  wedlock.  I'm  sorry/  she 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  385 

said,  '  that  you  had  to  leave  Hastings  before  my  lecture 
on  the  chastity  of  the  marriage  state.' 

'  It  wouldn't  have  mattered/  Dick  replied,  '  for  my 
wife  had  taken  to  drink  long  before  we  met  at  Hast- 
ings.' An  answer  that  darkened  Laura's  face  despite 
all  the  paint  she  wore,  and  encouraged  Dick  to  ask  her 
if  she  had  .never  felt  the  thorns  of  passion  prick  her 
when  she  ran  away  from  her  convent  school. 

She  seemed  uncertain  what  answer  she  should  re- 
turn, but  only  for  a  moment;  and  recovering  herself 
quickly  she  maintained  that  it  wasn't  passion,  which  is 
but  another  name  for  lewdness,  but  imagination,  that 
had  prompted  this  elopement,  and  that  if  she  had  gone 
to  Bulgaria  it  was  to  seek  there  a  nobler  life  than  the 
one  she  had  left  behind. 

'  It  was  the  immortal  that  drew  me,'  she  said. 

'  Even  so,'  Dick  answered,  '  the  mortal  seems  neces- 
sary for  the  immortal,  and  to  provide  him  with  a  habi- 
tation a  woman  must  give  herself  to  a  man.' 

'  That,'  she  replied,  '  is  one  of  the  penalties  entailed 
by  our  first  parents  upon  women,  but  one  that  is  en- 
tailed upon  a  condition  that  you  have  not  respected  but 
which  I  have  striven  always  to  respect  myself.  It 
would  be  impossible  for  me  to  give  myself  to  a  man 
unless  I  thought  I  was  going  to  bear  him  a  child.' 

It  was  on  Dick's  lips  to  remind  Laura  that  a  woman 
can  always  think  she  is  going  to  bear  a  child,  but  he 
refrained,  it  seeming  to  him  that  his  purpose  would  be 
better  served  by  allowing  Laura  to  justify  herself  as 
she  pleased,  and  he  waited  for  an  opportunity  to  speak 
to  her  about  the  alteration  which  he  deemed  altogether 
necessary  in  the  second  act.  But  Laura  was  away  on 
her  favourite  theme,  and  in  the  end  he  had  recourse  to 
his  watch. 


386  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  My  dear  Laura,  I'm  due  at  rehearsal  in  ten  min- 
utes from  now.' 

'  Well,  let's  go,'  she  cried. 

'  But,  my  dear,  this  is  what  I've  come  to  tell  you. 
The  second  act,' — and  he  explained  the  difficulty  which 
would  have  to  be  removed.  '  Now  like  a  dear,  good 
girl,  will  you  go  home  and  do  this  and  bring  it  down  to 
the  theatre  to-morrow  morning  at  eleven  so  that  we  may 
have  an  opportunity  of  going  through  it  together  be- 
fore rehearsal?' 

In  the  meantime,  Kate  lay  on  her  bed,  helpless  as 
ever,  just  as  Dick  had  left  her;  and  it  was  not  until  he 
had  given  his  preliminary  instructions  to  the  ballet- 
girls,  and  Montgomery  had  struck  the  first  notes  of  his 
opening  chorus,  that  a  ray  of  consciousness  pierced 
through  the  heavy,  drunken  stupor  that  pressed  upon 
her  brain.  With  vague  movements  of  hands,  she  en- 
deavoured to  fasten  the  front  of  her  dress,  and  with  a 
groan  rolled  herself  out  of  the  light;  but  her  efforts  to 
fall  back  into  insensibility  were  unavailing,  and  like  the 
dawn  that  slips  and  swells  through  the  veils  of  night, 
a  pale  waste  of  consciousness  forced  itself  upon  her. 
First  came  the  curtains  of  the  bed,  then  the  bare  blank- 
ness  of  the  wall,  and  then  the  great  throbbing  pain  that 
lay  like  a  lump  of  lead  just  above  her  forehead.  Her 
mouth  was  clammy  as  if  it  were  filled  with  glue,  her 
limbs  weak  as  if  they  had  been  beaten  to  a  pulp  by  vio- 
lent blows.  She  was  all  pain,  but,  worse  still,  a  black 
horror  of  her  life  crushed  and  terrified  her,  until  she 
buried  her  face  in  the  pillow  and  wept  and  moaned  for 
mercy.  But  to  remain  in  bed  was  impossible.  The  pal- 
lor of  the  place  was  intolerable,  and  sliding  her  legs 
over  the  side  she  stood,  scarcely  able  to  keep  her  feet. 
The  room  swam  as  if  in  a  mist;  she  held  her  head  with 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  387 

clasped  hands;  the  top  of  it  seemed  to  be  lifting  off, 
arid  it  was  with  much  difficulty  that  she  staggered  as 
far  as  the  chest  of  drawers,  where  she  remained  for 
some  minutes  trying  to  recover  herself,  thinking  of 
what  had  happened  over  night.  She  had  been  drunk, 
she  knew  that,  but  where  was  Dick?  Where  had  he 
gone?  What  had  she  said  to  him?  All  mental  effort 
was  agony;  but  she  had  to  think,  and  straining  at  the 
threads  of  memory,  she  strove  to  follow  one  to  the  end. 
But  it  was  no  use,  it  soon  became  hopelessly  entangled, 
and  with  a  low  cry  she  moaned,  '  Oh,  my  poor  head ! 
my  poor  head!  I  cannot,  cannot  remember.'  But  the 
question:  what  has  become  of  Dick?  still  continued  to 
torture  her  till  raising  her  face  suddenly  from  her  arm, 
she  hitched  up  her  falling  skirts,  and  seeing  at  that 
moment  the  bottle  on  the  table,  she  went  into  the  sit- 
ting-room and  poured  herself  out  a  little,  which  she 
mixed  with  water. 

'  Just  a  drop/  she  murmured  to  herself,  '  to  pull  me 
together.  It  was  his  fault;  until  he  put  me  in  a  pas- 
sion I  was  all  right.' 

Spreading  and  definite  thoughts  began  to  emerge, 
and  for  a  long  time  she  sat  moodily  thinking  over  her 
wrongs,  and  as  her  thoughts  wavered  they  grew  softer 
and  more  argumentative.  She  considered  the  question 
from  all  sides,  and,  reasoning  with  herself,  was  dis- 
posed to  conclude  that  it  was  not  all  her  fault.  If  she 
did  drink,  it  was  jealousy  that  drove  her  to  it.  Why 
wasn't  he  faithful  to  her  who  had  given  up  everything 
for  him?  Why  did  he  want  to  be  always  running  after 
a  lot  of  other  women?  Where  was  he  now,  she'd  like 
to  know?  As  this  question  appeared  in  the  lens  of  her 
thought,  she  raised  her  head,  and  although  boozed,  the 
memory  of  Mrs.  Forest's  letters  filled  her  mind. 

'  Oh,  yes,  that's  where  he's  gone  to,  is  it  ?'  she  mur- 


S88  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

mured  to  herself.  '  So  he's  down  with  his  poetess  at 
the  Opera  Comique,  rehearsing  Montgomery's  opera.' 

A  determination  to  follow  him  slowly  formed  itself 
in  her  mind,  and  she  managed  to  map  out  the  course 
that  she  would  have  to  pursue.  It  seemed  to  her  that 
she  was  beset  with  difficulties.  To  begin  with,  she  did 
not  know  where  the  theatre  was,  and  she  could  not  con- 
ceal from  herself  the  fact  that  she  was  scarcely  in  a  fit 
state  to  take  a  long  walk  through  the  London  streets. 
The  spirit  drunk  on  an  empty  stomach  had  gone  to  her 
head;  she  reeled  a  little  when  she  walked;  and  her  own 
incapacity  to  act  maddened  her.  Oh,  good  heavens! 
how  her  head  was  splitting!  What  would  she  not  give 
to  be  all  right  just  for  a  couple  of  hours,  just  long 
enough  to  go  and  tell  that  beast  of  a  husband  of  hers 
what  a  pig  he  was,  and  let  the  whole  theatre  know  how 
he  was  treating  his  wife.  It  was  he  who  drove  her  to 
drink.  Yes,  she  would  go  and  do  this.  It  was  true  her 
head  seemed  as  if  it  were  going  to  roll  off  her  shoulders, 
but  a  good  sponging  would  do  it  good,  and  then  a  bottle 
or  two  of  soda  would  put  her  quite  straight — so  straight 
that  nobody  would  know  she  had  touched  a  drop. 

It  took  Kate  about  half  an  hour  to  drench  herself  in 
a  basin,  and  regardless  of  her  dress,  she  let  her  hair 
lie  dripping  on  her  shoulders.  The  landlady  brought 
her  up  the  soda-water,  and  seeing  what  a  state  her 
lodger  was  in,  she  placed  it  on  the  table  without  a  word, 
without  even  referring  to  the  notice  to  quit  she  had 
given  overnight;  and  steadying  her  voice  as  best  she 
could,  Kate  asked  her  to  call  a  cab. 

'  Hansom,  or  four-wheeler?' 

'  Fo-four  wheel-er-if  you  please.' 

'  Yes,  that'll  suit  you  best,'  said  the  woman,  as  she 
went  downstairs.  '  You'd  perhaps  fall  out  of  a  han- 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  389 

som.  If  I  were  your  husband  I'd  break  every  bone  in 
your  body.' 

But  Kate  was  now  much  soberer,  and  weak  and  sick 
she  leaned  back  upon  the  hard  cushions  of  the  clatter- 
ing cab.  Her  mouth  was  full  of  water,  and  the  shift- 
ing angles  of  the  streets  produced  on  her  an  effect  simi- 
lar to  sea-sickness.  London  rang  in  her  ears ;  she  could 
hear  a  piano  tinkling;  she  saw  Dick  directing  the 
movements  of  a  line  of  girls.  Then  her  dream  was 
brought  to  an  end  by  a  gulp.  Oh !  the  fearful  nausea ; 
and  she  did  not  feel  better  until,  flooding  her  dress  and 
ruining  the  red  velvet  seat,  all  she  had  drunk  came  up. 
But  the  vomit  brought  her  great  relief,  and  had  it  not 
been  for  a  little  dizziness  and  weakness,  she  would  have 
felt  quite  right  when  she  arrived  at  the  stage-door.  In 
a  terrible  state  of  dirt  and  untidiness  she  was  surely, 
but  she  noticed  nothing;  her  mind  being  now  fully  occu- 
pied in  thinking  what  she  should  say,  first  to  the  stage- 
door-keeper,  and  then  to  her  husband.  At  the  corner 
of  Wyck  Street  she  dismissed  the  cab,  and  this  done 
she  did  not  seem  to  have  courage  enough  for  anything. 
She  felt  as  if  she  would  like  to  sit  down  on  a  doorstep 
and  cry.  The  menacing  threats,  the  bitter  upbraidings 
she  had  intended,  all  slipped  from  her  like  dreams,  and 
she  felt  utterly  wretched. 

At  that  moment,  in  her  little  walk  up  the  pavement 
she  found  herself  opposite  a  public-house.  Something 
whispered  in  her  ear  that  after  her  sickness  one  little 
nip  of  brandy  was  necessary,  and  would  put  her 
straight  in  a  moment.  She  hesitated,  but  someone 
pushed  her  from  behind  and  she  went  in.  A  four  of 
brandy  freshened  her  up  wonderfully,  enabling  her  to 
think  of  what  she  had  come  to  do,  and  to  remember 
how  badly  she  was  being  treated.  A  second  drink  put 
light  into  her  eyes  and  wickedness  into  her  head,  and 


390  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

she  felt  she  could,  and  would,  face  the  devil.  '  I'll  give 
it  to  him;  I'll  teach  him  that  I'm  not  to  be  trodden  on,' 
she  said  to  herself  as  she  strutted  manfully  towards  the 
stage-door,  walking  on  her  heels  so  as  to  avoid  any  un- 
steadiness of  gait. 

The  man  in  the  little  box  was  old  and  feeble.  He 
said  he  would  send  her  name  by  the  first  person  going 
down ;  but  Kate  was  not  in  a  mood  to  brook  delays,  and, 
profiting  by  his  inability  to  stop  her,  she  banged 
through  the  swinging  door  and  commenced  the  descent 
of  a  long  flight  of  steps.  Below  her  was  the  stage,  and 
between  the  wings  she  could  see  the  girls  arranged  in 
a  semi-circle.  Dick,  with  a  big  staff  in  hand,  stood  in 
front  of  the  footlights  directing  the  movements  of  a 
procession  which  was  being  formed;  the  piano  tinkled 
merrily  on  the  O.  P.  side. 

'  Mr.  Chappel,  will  you  be  good  enough  to  play  the 
"Just  put  this  in  your  pocket,"  chorus  over  again?' 
cried  Dick,  stamping  his  staff  heavily  upon  the  boards. 

'  Now  then,  girls,  I  hear  a  good  deal  too  much  talk- 
ing going  on  at  the  back  there.  I  dare  say  it's  very 
amusing;  but  if  you'd  try  to  combine  business  with 
pleasure —  Now,  who  did  I  put  in  section  one?' 

Kate  hesitated  a  moment,  arrested  by  the  tones  of 
his  voice,  and  she  could  not  avoid  thinking  of  the  time 
when  she  used  to  play  Clairette;  besides,  all  the  well- 
known  faces  were  there.  Our  lives  move  as  in  circles; 
no  matter  what  strange  vicissitudes  we  pass  through, 
we  generally  find  ourselves  gliding  once  more  into  the 
well-known  grooves,  and  Dick,  in  forming  the  present 
company,  had  naturally  fallen  back  upon  the  old  hands, 
who  had  travelled  with  him  in  the  country.  They  were 
nearly  all  there.  Mortimer,  with  his  ringlets  and  his 
long  nasal  drawl,  stood,  as  usual,  in  the  wings,  making 
ill-natured  remarks.  Dubois  strutted  as  before,  and 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  391 

tilting  his  bishop's  hat,  explained  that  he  would  take  no 
further  engagement  as  a  singer;  if  people  would  not  let 
him  act  they  would  have  to  do  without  him.  With  her 
dyed  hair  tucked  neatly  away  under  her  bonnet  Miss 
Leslie  smiled  as  agreeably  as  ever.  Beaumont  alone 
seemed  to  be  missing,  and  Montgomery,  in  all  the  im- 
portance of  a  going-to-be-produced  author,  strode  along 
up  and  down  the  stage,  apparently  busied  in  thought, 
the  tails  of  a  Newmarket  coat  still  flapping  about  his 
thin  legs;  and  when  he  appeared  in  profile  against  the 
scenery  he  looked,  as  he  always  had  done,  like  the  flit- 
ting shadow  thrown  by  an  enormous  magic-lantern. 

Kate  sullenly  watched  them,  gripping  the  rail  of  the 
staircase  tightly.  The  momentary  softening  of  heart, 
occasioned  by  the  remembrance  of  old  times,  died  away 
in  the  bitterness  of  the  thought  that  she  who  had 
counted  for  so  much  was  now  pushed  into  a  corner  to 
live  forgotten  or  disdained.  Why  was  she  not  rehears- 
ing there  with  them?  she  asked  herself.  At  once  the 
answer  came.  Because  your  husband  hates  you — be- 
cause he  wants  to  make  love  to  another  woman.  Then 
like  one  crazed  she  clattered  down  the  iron  spiral  stair- 
case to  the  stage.  She  did  not  even  hear  Mortimer  and 
Dubois  cry  out  as  she  pushed  past,  '  There's  Mrs.  Len- 
nox!' 

In  the  middle  of  the  stage,  however,  she  looked 
round,  discountenanced  by  the  silence  and  the  crowd, 
and,  hoping  to  calm  her,  Dick  advised  her,  in  whispers, 
to  go  upstairs  to  his  room.  But  this  was  the  signal  for 
her  to  break  forth. 

'  Go  up  to  your  room  ?'  she  screamed.  '  Never,  never ! 
Do  you  suppose  it  is  to  talk  to  you  that  I  came  here? 
No,  I  despise  you  too  much.  I  hate  you,  and  I  want 
everyone  here  to  know  how  you  treat  me.' 

With  a  dull  stare  she  examined  the  circle  of  girls 
26 


392  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

who  stood  whispering  in  groups,  as  if  she  were  going  to 
address  one  in  particular,  and  several  drew  back, 
frightened.  Dick  attempted  to  say  something,  but  it 
seemed  that  the  very  sound  of  his  voice  was  enough. 

'  Go  away,  go  away !'  she  exclaimed  at  the  top  of 
her  voice.  '  Go  away ;  don't  touch  me !  Go  to  that 
woman  of  yours — Mrs.  Forest — go  to  her,  and  be 
damned,  you  beast!  You  know  she's  paying  for  every- 
thing here.  You  know  that  you  are ' 

'  For  goodness'  sake  remember  what  you're  saying,' 
said  Dick,  interrupting,  and  trembling  as  if  for  his  life. 
He  cast  an  anxious  glance  around  to  see  if  the  lady  in 
question  was  within  hearing.  Fortunately  she  was  not 
on  the  stage. 

The  chorus  crowded  timidly  forward  looking  like  a 
school  in  their  walking-dresses.  The  carpenters  had 
ceased  to  hammer,  and  were  peeping  down  from  the 
flies;  Kate  stood  balancing  herself  and  staring  blindly 
at  those  who  surrounded  her.  Leslie  and  Montgomery, 
in  the  position  of  old  friends,  were  endeavouring  to 
soothe  her,  whilst  Mortimer  and  Dubois  argued  pas- 
sionately as  to  when  they  had  seen  her  drunk  for  the 
first  time.  The  first  insisted  that  when  she  had  joined 
them  at  Hanley  she  was  a  bit  inebriated;  the  latter  de- 
clared that  it  had  begun  with  the  champagne  on  her 
wedding  day. 

'  Don't  you  remember  Dick  was  married  with  a 
scratched  face?' 

'  To  judge  from  present  appearances/  said  the  come- 
dian, forcing  his  words  slowly  through  his  nose,  '  he's 
likely  to  die  with  one.'  At  this  sally  three  supers  re- 
tired into  the  wings  holding  their  sides,  and  Dubois, 
furious  at  being  outdone  in  a  joke,  walked  away  in  high 
dudgeon,  calling  Mortimer  an  unfeeling  brute. 

In  the  meantime  the  drunken  row  was  waxing  more 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  393 

furious  every  moment.  Struggling  frantically  with  her 
friends,  Kate  called  attention  to  the  sticking-plaster  on 
Dick's  face,  and  declared  that  she  would  do  for  him. 

'  You  see  what  I  gave  him  last  night,  and  he  de- 
served it.  Oh!  the  beast!  And  I'll  give  him  more;  and 
if  you  knew  all  you  wouldn't  blame  me.  It  was  he  who 
seduced  me,  who  got  me  to  run  away  from  home,  and 
he  deserts  me  for  other  women.  But  he  shan't,  he 
shan't,  he  shan't;  I'll  kill  him  first;  yes,  I  will,  and  no- 
body shall  stop  me.' 

Dick  listened  quite  broken  with  shame  for  himself 
and  for  her;  as  an  excuse  for  the  absence  of  his  wife 
from  the  theatre  he  had  told  Mortimer  and  Hayes  that 
London  did  not  agree  with  her,  and  that  she  had  to 
spend  most  of  her  time  at  the  seaside.  All  had  con- 
doled with  him,  and  when  they  were  searching  London 
for  a  second  lady,  all  had  agreed  that  Mrs.  Lennox 
was  just  the  person  they  wanted  for  the  part.  What  a 
pity,  they  said,  she  was  not  in  town.  At  the  present 
moment  Dick  wished  her  the  other  side  of  Jordan.  For 
all  he  knew,  she  might  remain  screaming  at  him  the 
whole  day,  and  if  Mrs.  Forest  came  back — well,  he 
didn't  know  what  would  happen;  the  whole  game  would 
then  be  up  the  sp'out.  Perhaps  the  best  thing  to  do 
would  be  to  tell  Montgomery  of  the  danger  his  piece 
was  in;  he  and  Kate  had  always  been  friends;  she 
might  listen  to  him. 

Such  were  Dick's  reflections  as  he  stood  bashfully 
trying  to  avoid  the  eyes  of  his  ballet-girls.  For  the  life 
of  him  he  didn't  know  which  way  to  look.  In  front  of 
him  was  a  wall  of  people,  whereon  certain  faces  de- 
tached themselves.  He  saw  Dubois's  mumming  mug 
widening  with  delight  until  the  grin  formed  a  semi- 
circle round  the  Jew  nose.  Mortimer  looked  on  with 
the  mock  earnestness  of  a  tortured  saint  in  a  stained- 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 


glass  window.  Pity  was  written  on  all  the  girls'  fnccs; 
nil  were  sorry  for  Dick,  especially  n  tall  woman  who 
forgot  herself  so  completely  that  she  threw  her  arms 
about  a  super  and  sobbed  on  his  shoulder. 

But  Kate  still  continued  to  advance,  although  held  by 
Montgomery  and  Miss  Leslie.  The  long  black  hair 
hung  in  disordered  masses;  her  brown  eyes  were  shot 
with  golden  lights;  the  green  tints  in  her  face  became, 
in  her  excessive  pallor,  dirty  and  abominable  in  colour, 
and  she  seemed  more  like  a  demon  than  a  woman  as  her 
screams  echoed  through  the  empty  theatre. 

'  By  Jove  !  we  ought  to  put  up  Jane  Eyre,'  said  Mor- 
timer. '  If  she  were  to  play  the  mad  woman  like  that, 
we'd  be  sure  to  draw  full  houses.' 

'  I  believe  you/  said  Dubois;  but  at  that  moment  he 
was  interrupted  by  a  violent  scream,  and  suddenly  dis- 
engaging herself  from  those  who  held  her,  Kate  rushed 
at  Dick.  With  one  hand  she  grappled  him  by  the 
throat,  and  before  anyone  could  interfere  she  succeeded 
in  nearly  tearing  the  shirt  from  his  back. 

When  at  length  they  were  separated,  she  stood  star- 
ing and  panting,  every  fibre  of  her  being  strained  with 
passion;  but  she  did  not  again  burst  forth  until  some- 
one, in  a  foolish  attempt  to  pacify  her,  ventured  to  side 
with  her  in  her  denunciation  of  her  husband. 

'  How  should  such  as  you  dare  to  say  a  word  against 
him!  I  will  not  hear  him  abused!  No,  I  will  not;  I 
My  he's  a  good  man.  Yes,  yes  I  He  is  a  good  man,  the 
best  man  that  ever  lived!'  she  exclaimed,  stamping  her 
foot  on  the  boards,  '  the  best  man  that  ever  lived  !  I 
will  not  hear  a  word  against  him!  No,  I  will  not!  He's 
my  husband;  he  married  me!  Yes  he  did;  I  can  show 
my  certificate,  and  that's  more  than  any  one  of  you  can. 
I  know  you,  a  damned  lot  of  hussies!  I  know  you;  I 
was  one  of  you  myself.  You  think  I  wasn't.  Well,  I 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  395 

can  prove  it.  You  go  and  ask  Montgomery  if  I  didn't 
play  Serpolette  all  through  the  country,  and  Clairette 
too.  I  should  like  to  see  any  of  you  do  that,  with  the 
exception  of  Lucy,  who  was  always  a  good  friend  to 
me;  but  the  rest  of  you  I  despise  as  the  dirt  under  my 
feet;  so  do  you  think  that  I  would  permit  you — that 
I  came  here  to  listen  to  my  husband  being  abused,  and 
by  such  as  you!  If  he  has  his  faults  he's  accountable 
to  none  but  me.' 

Here  she  had  to  pause  for  lack  of  breath;  and  Dick, 
who  had  been  pursuing  his  shirt-stud,  which  had  rolled 
into  the  footlights,  now  drew  himself  up,  and  in  his 
stage-commanding  voice  declared  the  rehearsal  to  be 
over.  A  few  of  the  girls  lingered,  but  they  were  beck- 
oned away  by  the  others,  who  saw  that  the  present  time 
was  not  suitable  for  the  discussion  of  boots,  tights,  and 
dressing-rooms.  There  was  no  one  left  but  Leslie, 
Montgomery,  Dick,  Kate,  and  Harding,  who,  twisting 
his  moustache,  watched  and  listened  apparently  with 
the  greatest  interest. 

'  Oh,  you've  no  idea  what  a  nice  woman  she  used  to 
be,  and  is,  were  it  not  for  that  cursed  drink,'  said  Mont- 
gomery, with  the  tears  running  down  his  nose.  '  You 
remember  her,  Leslie,  don't  you?  Isn't  what  I  say 
true?  I  never  liked  a  woman  so  much  in  my  life.' 

*  You  were  a  friend  of  hers,  then  ?'  said  Harding. 

'  I  should  think  I  was/ 

'  Then  you  never  were —  Yes,  yes,  I  understand.  A 
little  friendship  flavoured  with  love.  Yes,  yes.  Wears 
better,  perhaps,  than  the  genuine  article.  What  do  you 
think,  Leslie?' 

'  Not  bad/  said  the  prima  donna,  '  for  people  with 
poor  appetites.  A  kind  of  diet  suitable  for  Lent,  I 
should  think/ 

'  Ah !  a  title  for  a  short  story,  or,  better  still,  for  an 


396  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

operetta.  What  do  you  think,  Montgomery?  Shall  I 
do  you  a  book  entitled  Lovers  in  Lent,  or  A  Lover's 
Lent?  and  Leslie  will ' 

'  No,  I  won't.     None  of  your  forty  days  for  me.' 

'  I  can't  understand  how  you  people  can  go  on  talk- 
ing nonsense  with  a  scene  so  terrible  passing  under 
your  eyes/  cried  the  musician,  as  he  pointed  to  Kate, 
who  was  calling  after  Dick  as  she  staggered  in  pursuit 
of  him  up  the  stairs  towards  the  stage-door. 

'Well,  what  do  you  want  me  to  do?' 

'  She'll  disgrace  him  in  the  street.' 

'  I  can't  help  that.  I  never  interfere  in  a  love  affair ; 
and  this  is  evidently  the  great  passion  of  a  life.' 

Montgomery  cast  an  indignant  glance  at  the  novelist 
and  rushed  after  his  friends ;  but  when  he  arrived  at  the 
stage-door  he  saw  the  uselessness  of  his  interference. 

It  was  in  the  narrow  street;  the  heat  sweltered  be- 
tween the  old  houses  that  leaned  and  lolled  upon  the 
huge  black  traversing  beams  like  aged  women  on 
crutches;  and  Kate  raved  against  Dick  in  language  that 
was  fearful  to  hear  amid  the  stage  carpenters,  the 
chorus-girls,  the  idlers  that  a  theatre  collects  standing 
with  one  foot  in  the  gutter,  where  vegetable  refuse  of 
all  kinds  rotted.  Her  beautiful  black  hair  was  now 
hanging  over  her  shoulders  like  a  mane;  some  one  had 
trodden  on  her  dress  and  nearly  torn  it  from  her  waist, 
and,  in  avid  curiosity,  women  with  dyed  hair  peeped  out 
of  a  suspicious-looking  tobacco  shop.  Over  the  way, 
stuck  under  an  overhanging  window,  was  an  orange- 
stall;  the  proprietress  stood  watching,  whilst  a  crowd  of 
vermin-like  children  ran  forward,  delighted  at  the  pros- 
pect of  seeing  a  woman  beaten.  Close  by,  in  shirt- 
sleeves, the  pot-boy  flung  open  the  public-house  door, 
partly  for  the  purpose  of  attracting  custom,  half  with 
the  intention  of  letting  a  little  air  into  the  bar-room. 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  397 

'  Oh,  Kate !  I  beg  of  you  not  to  go  in  there/  said 
Dick ;  '  you've  had  enough ;  do  come  home !' 

'  Come  home !'  she  shrieked,  '  and  with  you,  you 
beast!  It  was  you  who  seduced  me,  who  got  me  away 
from  my  husband.' 

This  occasioned  a  good  deal  of  amusement  in  the 
crowd,  and  several  voices  asked  for  information. 

'  And  how  did  he  manage  to  do  that,  marm  ?'  said  one. 

'  With  a  bottle  of  gin.  What  do  you  think  ?'  cried 
another. 

There  were  moments  when  Dick  longed  for  the  earth 
to  open;  but  he  nevertheless  continued  to  try  to  prevent 
Kate  from  entering  the  public-house. 

'  I  will  drink !  I  will  drink !  I  will  drink !  And  not 
because  I  like  it,  but  to  spite  you,  because  I  hate  you.' 

When  she  came  out  she  appeared  to  be  a  little 
quieted,  and  Dick  tried  very  hard  to  persuade  her  to 
get  into  a  cab  and  drive  home.  But  the  very  sound  of 
his  voice,  the  very  sight  of  him,  seemed  to  excite  her, 
and  in  a  few  moments  she  broke  forth  into  the  usual 
harangue.  Several  times  the  temptation  to  run  away 
became  almost  irresistible,  but  with  a  noble  effort  of 
will  he  forced  himself  to  remain  with  her.  Hoping  to 
avoid  some  part  of  the  ridicule  that  was  being  so  liber- 
ally showered  upon  him,  he  besought  of  her  to  keep  up 
Drury  Lane  and  not  descend  into  the  Strand. 

'  You  don't  want  to  be  seen  with  me;  I  know,  you'd 
prefer  to  walk  there  with  Mrs.  Forest.  You  think  I 
shall  disgrace  you.  Well,  come  along  then. 

4 "  Look  at  me  here,  look  at  me  there, 
Criticize  me  everywhere. 
I  am  so  sweet, 
From  head  to  feet, 
And  most  perfect  and  complete." ' 


598  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

4  That's  right,  old  woman,  give  us  a  song.  She  knows 
the  game/  answered  another. 

Raising  his  big  hat  from  his  head,  Dick  wiped  his 
face,  and  as  if  divining  his  extreme  despair,  Kate  left 
off  singing  and  dancing,  and  the  procession  proceeded 
in  quiet  past  several  different  wine-shops.  It  was  not 
until  they  came  to  Short's  she  declared  she  was  dying 
of  thirst  and  must  have  a  drink.  Dick  forbade  the  bar- 
man to  serve  her,  and  brought  upon  himself  the  most 
shocking  abuse.  Knowing  that  he  would  be  sure  to  meet 
a  crowd  of  his  '  pals  '  at  the  Gaiety  bar,  he  used  every 
endeavour  to  persuade  her  to  cross  the  street  and  get 
out  of  the  sun. 

'  Don't  bother  me  with  your  sun/  she  exclaimed 
surlily;  and  then,  as  if  struck  by  the  meaning  of  the 
word,  she  said,  '  But  it  wasn't  a  son,  it  was  a  daughter ; 
don't  you  remember?' 

'  Oh,  Kate !  how  can  you  speak  so  ?' 

'Speak  so?  I  say  it  was  a  daughter,  and  she  died; 
and  you  said  it  was  my  fault,  as  you  say  everything 
is  my  fault,  you  beast !  you  venomous  beast !  Yes,  she 
did  die.  It  was  a  pity;  I  could  have  loved  her.' 

At  this  moment  Dick  felt  a  heavy  hand  clapped  on 
his  shoulder,  and  turning  round  he  saw  a  pal  of  his. 

'  What,  Dick,  my  boy !  A  drunken  chorus  lady ;  try- 
ing to  get  her  home?  Always  up  to  some  charitable 
action.' 

'  No;  she's  my  wife.' 

'  I  beg  your  pardon,  old  chap ;  you  know  I  didn't 
mean  it';  and  the  man  disappeared  into  the  bar-room. 

'  Yes,  I'm  his  wife/  Kate  shrieked  after  him.  '  I  got 
that  much  right  out  of  him  at  least;  and  I  played  the 
Serpolette  in  the  Cloches.' 

'"Look  at  me  here,  look  at  me  there,'" 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  399 

she  sang,  flirting  with  her  abominable  skirt,  amused 
by  the  applause  of  the  roughs.  '  But  I'm  going  to  have 
a  drink  here/  she  said,  suddenly  breaking  off. 

'  No,  you  can't,  my  good  woman,'  said  the  stout  guar- 
dian at  the  door. 

'And  why — why  not?' 

'  That  don't  matter.  You  go  on,  or  I'll  have  to  give 
you  in  charge.' 

Kate  was  not  yet  so  drunk  that  the  words  '  in  charge  ' 
did  not  frighten  her,  and  she  answered  humbly  enough, 
'  I'm  here  wi-th-my  hu-s-band,  and  as  you're  so  im-im- 
pertinent  I  shall  go-go  elsewhere.' 

At  the  next  place  they  came  to  Dick  did  not  protest 
against  her  being  served,  but  waited,  confident  of  the 
result,  until  she  had  had  her  four  of  gin,  and  came  reel- 
ing out  into  his  arms.  Shaking  herself  free  she  stared 
at  him,  and  when  he  was  fully  recognized,  cursed  him 
for  his  damned  interference.  She  could  now  scarcely 
stand  straight  on  her  legs,  and,  after  staggering  a  few 
yards  further,  fell  helplessly  on  the  pavement. 

Calling  a  cab,  he  bundled  her  into  it  and  drove  away. 


XXVII 


'  OH,  Dick,  dear,  what  did   I   do  yesterday  ?      Do  tell 
me  about  yesterday.     Was  I  very  violent?     And  those 
wounds  on  your   face,   I   didn't  do  that,  don't  tell  me 
that  I  did.     Dick,  Dick,  are  you  going  to  leave  me?  ' 
'  I  have  to  attend  to  my  business,  Kate.' 
'  Ah,  your  business !     Your  business  !     Mrs.  Forest  is 
your  business;  you've  no  other  business  but  her  now. 
And  that  is  what  is  driving  me  to  drink.' 

'  Oh,  Kate,  don't  begin  it  again.    I've  a  rehearsal ' 

'  Yes,  the  rehearsal  of  her  opera  and  Montgomery's 
music.  I  did  think  he  was  my  friend;  yet  he  is  putting 
up  her  opera  to  music,  and  all  the  while  he  was  setting 
it  you  were  telling  me  lies  about  Chilperic,  saying  that 
I  was  to  play  the  Fredegond,  and  all  the  principal  parts 
in  the  great  Herve  festival,  that  the  American — but  there 
was  no  American.  It  was  cruel  of  you,  Dick,  to  shut  me 
up  here  with  nobody  to  speak  to;  nothing  to  do  but  to 
wait  for  you  hour  after  hour,  and  when  you  come  home 
to  hear  nothing  from  you  but  lies,  nothing  but  lies! 
Chilperic,  Le  Petit  Faust,  L'CEil  Creve,  Trone  d'Ecosse, 
Marguerite  de  Navarre,  La  Belle  Poule.  And  all  the 
music  I've  learnt  hoping  that  I  would  be  allowed  to  sing 
it ;  and  yet  you  expect  that  a  woman  who  is  deceived  like 
that  can  abstain  from  drink.  Why,  you  drive  me  to  it, 
Dick.  An  angel  from  heaven  wouldn't  abstain  from 

400 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  401 

drink.  Away  you  go  in  the  morning  to  Mrs.  Forest — to 
her  opera.' 

'  But,  Kate,  there's  nothing  between  me  and  Mrs. 
Forest.  She  is  a  very  clever  woman,  and  I  am  doing  her 
opera  for  her.  How  are  we  to  live  if  you  come  between 
me  and  my  business  ?  ' 

'  Womanizing  is  your  business,'  Kate  answered  sud- 
denly. 

'  Well,  don't  let  us  argue  it,'  Dick  answered.  He  tied 
his  shoe-strings  and  sought  for  his  hat. 

'  So  you're  going/  she  said ;  '  and  when  shall  I  see  you 
again  ? ' 

'  I  shall  try  to  get  home  for  dinner.' 

'What  time?' 

'  Not  before  eight.' 

'  I  shall  not  see  you  before  twelve/  she  replied, 
and  she  experienced  a  sad  sinking  of  the  heart  when 
she  heard  the  door  close  behind  him,  a  sad  sinking 
that  she  would  have  to  endure  till  she  heard  his  latch- 
key, and  that  would  not  be  for  many  hours,  perhaps 
not  till  midnight.  She  did  not  know  how  she  would 
be  able  to  endure  all  these  hours;  to  sleep  some  of  them 
away  would  be  the  best  thing  she  could  do,  and  with 
that  intention  she  drew  down  the  blind  and  threw  herself 
on  the  bed,  and  lay  between  sleeping  and  waking  till  the 
afternoon.  Then,  feeling  a  little  better,  she  rang  and 
asked  for  a  cup  of  tea.  It  tasted  very  insipid,  but  she 
gulped  it  down  as  best  she  could,  making  wry  faces  and 
feeling  more  miserable  than  ever  she  had  felt  before; 
afraid  to  look  back  on  yesterday,  afraid  to  look  for- 
ward on  the  morrow,  she  bethought  herself  of  the  past, 
of  the  happy  days  when  Montgomery  used  to  come  and 
teach  her  to  sing,  and  her  triumphs  in  the  part  of  Clair- 
ette;  she  was  quite  as  successful  in  Serpolette;  people 
had  liked  her  in  Serpolette,  and  to  recall  those  days 


402  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

\ 

more  distinctly  she  opened  a  box  in  which  she  kept  her 
souvenirs:  a  withered  flower,  a  broken  cigarette-holder, 
two  or  three  old  buttons  that  had  fallen  from  his  clothes, 
and  a  lock  of  hair,  and  it  was  under  these  that  the  prize 
of  prizes  lay — a  string  of  false  pearls.  She  liked  to 
run  them  through  her  fingers  and  to  see  them  upon  her 
neck.  She  still  kept  the  dresses  she  wore  in  her  two 
favourite  parts:  the  stockings  and  the  shoes,  and  hav- 
ing nothing  to  do,  no  way  of  passing  the  time  away, 
she  bethought  herself  of  dressing  herself  in  the  apparel 
of  her  happy  days,  presenting,  when  the  servant  came 
up  with  her  dinner,  a  spectacle  that  almost  caused  Emma 
to  drop  the  dish  of  cold  mutton. 

'  Lord,  Mrs.  Lennox,  I  thought  I  see  a  ghost;  you  in 
that  white  dress,  oh,  what  lovely  clothes ! ' 

'  These  were  the  clothes  I  used  to  wear  when  I  was 
on  the  stage.' 

'  But  law,  mum,  why  aren't  you  on  the  stage  now  ?  ' 

Kate  began  to  tell  her  story  to  the  servant-girl,  who 
listened  till  a  bell  rang,  and  she  said: 

'  That's  Mr.  So-and-So  ringing  for  his  wife;  I  must 
run  and  see  to  it,  you  must  excuse  me,  mum.' 

The  cold  mutton  and  the  damp  potatoes  did  not  tempt 
her  appetite,  and  catching  sight  of  herself  in  the  glass, 
bitter  thoughts  of  the  wrongs  done  to  her  surged  up  in 
her  mind.  The  tiny  nostrils  dilated  and  the  upper  lip 
contracted,  and  for  ten  minutes  she  stood,  her  hands 
grasping  nervously  at  the  back  of  her  chair;  the  canine 
teeth  showed,  for  the  project  of  revenge  was  mounting  to 
her  head.  '  He'll  not  be  back  till  midnight;  all  this  while 
he  is  with  Leslie  and  Mrs.  Forest,  or  some  new  girl  per- 
haps. Yet  when  he  returns  to  me,  when  he  is  wearied 
out,  he  expects  to  find  me  sober  and  pleased  to  see  him. 
But  he  shall  never  see  me  sober  or  pleased  to  see  him 
again.'  On  these  words  she  walked  across  the  room 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  403 

to  the  fire-place,  and  putting  her  hand  up  the  chimney 
brought  down  a  bottle  of  Old  Tom,  and  sat  moodily  sip- 
ping gin  and  water  till  she  heard  his  key  in  the  lock. 

'  He's  back  earlier  than  I  expected/  she  said. 

Dick  entered  in  his  usual  deliberate,  elephantine  way. 
Kate  made  no  sign  till  he  was  seated,  then  she  asked 
what  the  news  was. 

It  was  clearly  out  of  the  question  to  tell  her  that 
he  had  been  round  to  tea  with  one  of  the  girls;  to 
explain  how  he  had  wheedled  Mrs.  Forest  into  all  sorts 
of  theatrical  follies  was  likewise  not  to  be  thought  of  as 
a  subject  of  news,  and  as  to  making  conversation  out  of 
the  rest  of  the  day's  duties,  he  really  didn't  see  how 
he  was  to  do  it.  Miss  Howard  had  put  out  the  entire 
procession  by  not  listening  to  his  instructions;  Miss 
Adair,  although  she  was  playing  the  Brigand  of  the 
Ultramarine  Mountains,  had  threatened  to  throw  up  her 
part  if  she  were  not  allowed  to  wear  her  diamond  ear- 
rings. The  day  had  gone  in  deciding  such  questions; 
had  passed  in  drilling  those  infernal  girls,  and  what  in- 
terest could  there  be  in  going  through  it  all  over  again? 
Besides,  he  never  knew  how  or  where  he  might  betray 
himself,  and  Kate  was  so  quick  in  picking  up  the  slight- 
est word  and  twisting  it  into  extraordinary  meanings, 
that  he  really  would  prefer  to  talk  about  something  else. 

'  I  can't  understand  how  you  can  have  been  out  all 
day  without  having  heard  something.  It  is  because  you 
want  to  keep  me  shut  up  here  and  not  let  me  know 
anything  of  your  going-on;  but  I  shall  go  down  to  the 
theatre  to-morrow  and  have  it  out  of  you.' 

'  My  dear,  I  assure  you  that  I  was  at  the  rehearsal 
all  day.  The  girls  don't  know  their  music  yet,  and  it 
puts  me  out  in  my  stage  arrangement.  I  give  you  my 
word  that  is  all  I  heard  or  saw  to-day.  I've  nothing 
to  conceal  from  you.' 


404  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  You're  a  liar,  and  you  know  you  are ! ' 

Blows  and  shrieks  followed. 

'  I  shall  pull  that  woman's  nose  off ;  I  know  I  shall ! ' 

'  I  give  you  my  word,  my  dear,  that  I've  been  the 
whole  day  with  Montgomery  and  Harding  cutting  the 
piece.' 

'  Cutting  the  piece !  And  I  should  like  to  know  why 
I'm  not  in  that  piece.  I  suppose  it  was  you  who  kept 
me  out  of  it.  Oh,  you  beast!  Why  did  you  ever  have 
anything  to  do  with  me?  It's  you  who  are  ruining  me. 
Were  it  not  for  you,  do  you  think  I  should  be  drink- 
ing? Not  I — it  was  all  your  fault.' 

Dick  made  no  attempt  to  answer.  He  was  very  tired. 
Kate  continued  her  march  up  and  down  the  room  for 
some  moments  in  silence,  but  he  could  see  from  the 
twitching  of  her  face  and  the  swinging  of  her  arms  that 
the  storm  was  bound  to  burst  soon.  Presently  she  said: 

'  You  go  and  get  me  something  to  drink;  I've  had 
nothing  all  this  evening.' 

'  Oh,  Kate,  dear !    I  beg  of ' 

'  Oil,  you  won't,  won't  you  ?  We'll  see  about  that/ 
she  answered  as  she  looked  around  the  room  for  the  heav- 
iest object  she  could  conveniently  throw  at  him. 

Seeing  how  useless  it  would  be  to  attempt  to  contra- 
dict her  in  her  present  mood,  Dick  rose  to  his  feet 
and  said  hurriedly: 

'  Now  there's  no  use  in  getting  into  a  passion,  Kate. 
I'll  go,  I'll  go.' 

'  You'd  better,  I  can  tell  you.' 

'What  shall  I  get,  then?' 

'  Get  me  half  a  pint  of  gin,  and  be  quick  about  it 
— I'm  dying  of  thirst.' 

Even  Dick,  accustomed  as  he  was  now  to  these  scenes, 
could  not  repress  a  look  in  which  there  was  at  once 
mingled  pity,  astonishment  and  fear,  so  absolutely  de- 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  405 

moniacal  did  this  little  woman  seem  as  she  raved  under 
the  watery  light  of  the  lodging-house  gas,  her  dark  com- 
plexion gone  to  a  dull  greenish  pallor.  By  force  of  con- 
trast she  called  to  his  mind  the  mild-eyed  workwoman 
he  had  known  in  the  linen-draper's  shop  in  Hanley,  and 
he  asked  himself  if  it  were  possible  that  she  and  this  rag- 
ing creature,  more  like  a  tiger  in  her  passion  than  a 
human  being,  were  one  and  the  same  person?  He  could 
not  choose  but  wonder.  But  another  scream  came,  bid- 
ding him  make  haste,  or  it  would  be  worse  for  him,  and 
he  bent  his  head  and  went  to  fetch  the  gin. 

In  the  meantime  Kate's  fury  leaped,  crackled,  and 
burnt  with  the  fierceness  of  a  house  in  the  throes  of  con- 
flagration, and  in  the  smoke-cloud  of  hatred  which  en- 
veloped her,  only  fragments  of  ideas  and  sensations 
flashed  like  falling  sparks  through  her  mind.  Up  and 
down  the  room  she  walked  swinging  her  arms,  only  hesi- 
tating for  some  new  object  whereon  to  wreak  new  fury. 
Suddenly  it  struck  her  that  Dick  had  been  too  long 
away — that  he  was  keeping  her  waiting  on  purpose;  and 
grinding  her  teeth,  she  muttered: 

'  Oh,  the  beast !  Would  he — would  he  keep  me  wait- 
ing, and  since  nine  this  morning  I've  been  alone!' 

In  an  instant  her  resolve  was  taken.  It  came  to 
her  sullenly,  obtusely,  like  the  instinct  of  revenge  to 
an  animal.  She  did  not  stop  to  consider  what  she  was 
doing,  but,  seizing  a  large  stick,  the  handle  of  a  brush 
that  happened  to  have  been  broken,  she  stationed  herself 
at  the  top  of  the  landing.  A  feverish  tremor  agitated  her 
as  she  waited  in  the  semi-darkness  of  the  stairs.  But  at 
last  she  heard  the  door  open,  and  Dick  came  up  slowly 
with  his  usual  heavy  tread.  She  made  neither  sign  nor 
stir,  but  allowed  him  to  get  past  her,  and  then,  raising 
the  brush-handle,  she  landed  him  one  across  the  back. 


406  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

The  poor  man  uttered  a  long  cry,  and  the  crash  of 
broken  glass  was  heard. 

'  What  did  you  hit  me  like  that  for  ?  '  he  cried,  hold- 
ing himself  with  both  hands. 

4  You  beast,  you!  I'll  teach  you  to  keep  me  waiting! 
You  would,  would  you!  Do  you  want  another?  Go 
into  the  sitting-room.' 

Dick  obeyed  humbly  and  in  silence.  His  only  hope 
was  that  the  landlady  had  not  been  awakened,  and  he 
felt  uneasily  at  his  pockets,  through  which  he  could  feel 
the  gin  dripping  down  his  legs. 

'  Well,  have  you  brought  the  drink  I  sent  you  for  ? 
Where  is  it?' 

'  Well,'  replied  Dick,  desirous  of  conciliating  at  any 
price,  '  it  was  in  my  pocket,  but  when  you  hit  me  with 
that  stick  you  broke  it.' 

'  I  broke  it? '  cried  Kate,  her  eyes  glistening  with 
fire. 

'Yes,  dear,  you  did;  it  wasn't  my  fault.' 

'  Wasn't  your  fault !  Oh,  you  horrid  wretch !  you  put 
it  there  on  purpose  that  I  should  break  it.' 

'  Oh,  now  really,  Kate,'  he  cried,  shocked  by  the  un- 
fairness of  the  accusation,  '  how  could  I  know  that  you 
were  going  to  hit  me  there  ?  ' 

'  I  don't  know  and  I  don't  care;  what's  that  to  me? 
But  what  I'm  sure  of  is  that  you  always  want  to  spite 
me,  that  you  hate  me,  that  you  would  wish  to  see  me 
dead,  so  that  you  might  marry  Mrs.  Forest.' 

'  I  can't  think  how  you  can  say  such  things.  I've 
often  told  you  that  Mrs.  Forest  and  I ' 

'Oh!  don't  bother  me.  I'm  not  such  a  fool.  I  know 
she  keeps  you,  and  she  will  have  to  pay  me  a  drink  to- 
night. Go  and  get  another  bottle  of  gin;  and  mind  you 
pay  for  it  with  the  money  she  gave  you  to-day.  Yes, 
she  shall  stand  me  a  drink  to-night ! ' 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  4( 

'  I  give  you  my  word  I  haven't  another  penny-piece 
upon  me;  it's  just  the  accident ' 

But  Dick  did  not  get  time  to  finish  the  sentence; 
he  was  interrupted  by  a  heavy  blow  across  the  face,  and 
like  a  panther  that  has  tasted  blood,  she  rushed  at  him 
again,  screaming  all  the  while :  '  Oh,  you've  no  money ! 
You  liar !  you  liar !  So  you  would  make  me  believe  that 
she  does  not  give  you  money,  that  you  have  no  money  of 
hers  in  your  pocket.  You  would  keep  it  all  for  your- 
self; but  you  shan't,  no,  you  shan't,  for  I  will  tear  it 
from  you  and  throw  it  in  your  face!  Oh,  that  filthy 
money !  that  filthy  money ! ' 

The  patience  with  which  he  bore  with  her  was  truly 
angelic.  He  might  easily  have  felled  her  to  the  ground 
with  one  stroke,  but  he  contented  himself  with  merely 
warding  off  the  blows  she  aimed  at  him.  From  his  great 
height  and  strength,  he  was  easily  able  to  do  this,  and 
she  struck  at  him  with  her  little  womanish  arms  as  she 
might  against  a  door. 

'  Take  down  your  hands,'  she  screamed,  exasperated 
to  a  last  degree.  '  You  would  strike  me,  would  you  ? 
You  beast!  I  know  you  would/ 

Her  rage  had  now  reached  its  height.  Showing  her 
clenched  teeth,  she  foamed  at  the  mouth,  the  blood- 
shot eyes  protruded  from  their  sockets,  and  her  voice 
grew  more  and  more  harsh  and  discordant.  But,  al- 
though the  excited  brain  gave  strength  to  the  muscles 
and  energy  to  the  will,  unarmed  she  could  do  nothing 
against  Dick,  and  suddenly  becoming  conscious  of  this 
she  rushed  to  the  fireplace  and  seized  the  poker.  With 
one  sweep  of  the  arm  she  cleared  the  mantel-board,  and 
the  mirror  came  in  for  a  tremendous  blow  as  she  ad- 
vanced round  the  table  brandishing  her  weapon;  but, 
heedless  of  the  shattered  glass,  she  followed  in  pursuit 
of  Dick,  who  continued  to  defend  himself  dexterously 
27 


408  A   MUMMER'S   WIFE 

with  a  chair.  And  it  is  difficult  to  say  how  long  this 
combat  might  have  lasted  if  Dick's  attention  had  not 
heen  interrupted  by  the  view  of  the  landlady's  face  at 
the  door;  and  so  touched  was  he  by  the  woman's  dismay 
when  she  looked  upon  her  broken  furniture,  that  he  for- 
got to  guard  himself  from  the  poker.  Kate  took  ad- 
vantage of  the  occasion  and  whirled  the  weapon  round 
her  head.  He  saw  it  descending  in  time,  and  half 
warded  off  the  blow;  but  it  came  down  with  awful  force 
on  the  forearm,  and  glancing  off,  inflicted  a  severe  scalp 
wound.  The  landlady  screamed  '  Murder ! '  and  Dick, 
seeing  that  matters  had  come  to  a  crisis,  closed  in  upon 
\  his  wife,  and  undeterred  by  yells  and  struggles,  pinioned 
her  .and  forced  her  into  a  chair. 

'  Oh,  dear !  Oh,  dear !  You're  all  bleeding,  sir,'  cried 
the  landlady ;  '  she  has  nearly  killed  you.' 

'  Never  mind  me.  But  what  are  we  to  do  ?  I  think 
she  has  gone  mad  this  time.' 

'  That's  what  I  think/  said  the  landlady,  trying  to 
make  herself  heard  above  Kate's  shrieks. 

'  Well,  then,  go  and  fetch  a  doctor,  and  let's  hear 
what  he  has  to  say,'  replied  Dick,  as  he  changed  his 
grip  on  Kate's  arm,  for  in  a  desperate  struggle  she 
had  nearly  succeeded  in  wrenching  herself  free.  The 
landlady  retreated  precipitately  towards  the  door. 

*  Well,  will  you  go?' 

'Yes,  yes,  I'll  run  at  once.' 

'  You'd  better,'  yelled  the  mad  woman  after  her. 
'  I'll  give  it  to  you !  Let  me  go !  Let  me  go,  will 
you?'  /* 

Unt  Dirk  never  ceased  liis  hold  of  her,  and  the  blood, 
dripping  upon  her,  trickled  in  large  drops  into  her  ears, 
and  down  into  her  neck  and  bosom. 

'  You're  spitting  on  me,  you  beast !  You  filthy  beast ! 
I'll  pay  you  out  for  this.'  Then  she  perceived  that  it 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  409 

was  blood;  the  intonation  of  her  voice  changed,  and  in 
terror  she  screamed,  '  Murder !  murder !  He's  murder- 
ing me  I  Is  there  no  one  here  to  save  me  ?' 

The  minutes  seemed  like  eternities :  Dick  felt  him- 
self growing  faint,  but  should  he  lose  his  power  over 
her  before  the  doctor  arrived,  the  consequences  might 
be  fatal  to  himself,  so  he  struggled  with  her  for  very  life. 

At  last  the  door  was  opened,  and  a  man  walked  into 
the  room,  tripping  in  so  doing  over  a  piece  of  the 
broken  mirror.  It  was  the  doctor,  and  accustomed  as 
he  was  to  betray  surprise  at  nothing,  he  could  not  re- 
press a  look  of  horror  on  catching  sight  of  the  scene 
around  him. 

The  apartment  was  almost  dismantled;  chairs  lay 
backless  about  the  floor  amid  china  shepherdesses  and 
toreadors;  pictures  were  thrown  over  the  sofa,  and  a 
huge  pile  of  wax  fruit — apples  and  purple  grapes — was 
partially  reflected  in  a  large  piece  of  mirror  that  had 
fallen  across  the  hearthrug. 

'  Come,  help  me  to  hold  her,'  said  Dick,  raising  his 
blood-stained  face. 

With  a  quick  movement  the  doctor  took  possession  of 
Kate's  arms.  '  Give  me  a  sheet  from  the  next  room ; 
I'll  soon  make  her  fast.' 

The  threat  of  being  tied  had  its  effect.  Kate  be- 
came quieter,  and  after  some  trouble  they  succeeded  in 
carrying  her  into  the  next  room  and  laying  her  on  the 
bed.  There  she  rolled  convulsively,  beating  the  pillows 
with  her  arms.  The  landlady  stationed  herself  at  the 
door  to  give  notice  of  any  further  manifestation  of  fury, 
whilst  Dick  explained  the  circumstances  of  the  case  to 
the  doctor. 

After  a  short  consultation,  he  agreed  to  sign  an  order 
declaring  that  in  his  opinion  Mrs.  Lennox  was  a  dan- 
gerous lunatic. 


410  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  Will  that  be  enough,'  said  Dick,  '  to  place  her  in  an 
asylum  ?  ' 

'  No,  you'll  have  to  get  the  opinion  of  another  doctor.' 

The  possibility  of  being  able  to  rid  himself  of  her  was 
to  him  like  the  sudden  dawning  of  a  new  life,  and  Dick 
rushed  off,  bleeding,  haggard,  wild-looking  as  he  was, 
to  seek  for  another  doctor  who  would  concur  in  the 
judgment  of  the  first,  asking  himself  if  it  were  possible 
to  see  Kate  in  her  present  position,  and  say  conscien- 
tiously that  she  was  a  person  who  could  be  safely 
trusted  with  her  liberty?  And  to  his  great  joy  this  view 
was  taken  by  the  second  authority  consulted,  and  having 
placed  his  wife  under  lock  and  key,  Dick  lay  down  to 
rest  a  happier  man  than  he  had  been  for  many  a  day. 
The  position  in  his  mind  was,  of  course,  the  means  he 
should  adopt  to  place  her  in  the  asylum.  Force  was  not 
to  be  thought  of;  persuasion  must  be  first  tried.  So  far 
he  was  decided,  but  as  to  the  arguments  he  should  ad- 
vance to  induce  her  to  give  up  her  liberty  he  knew  noth- 
ing, nor  did  he  attempt  to  formulate  any  scheme,  and 
when  he  entered  the  bedroom  next  morning  he  relied 
more  on  the  hope  of  finding  her  repentant,  and  appeal- 
ing to  and  working  on  her  feelings  of  remorse  than  any- 
thing else.  '  The  whole  thing,'  as  he  put  it,  '  depended 
upon  the  humour  he  should  find  her  in.' 

And  he  found  her  with  stains  of  blood  still  upon  her 
face,  amid  the  broken  furniture,  and  she  asked  calmly 
but  with  intense  emotion: 

'Dick,  did  he  say  I  was  mad?' 

'  Well,  dear,  I  don't  know  that  he  said  you  were 
mad  except  when  you  were  the  worse  for  drink,  but  he 
said ' 

'  That  I  might  become  mad,'  she  interposed,  '  if  I 
don't  abstain  from  drink.  Did  he  say  that  ?  ' 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  411 

'  Well,  it  was  something  like  that,  Kate.  You  know 
I  only  just  escaped  with  my  life.' 

'Only  just  escaped  with  your  life,  Dick!  Oh,  if  I'd 
killed  you,  if  I'd  killed  you!  If  I'd  seen  you  lying  dead 
at  my  feet ! '  and  unable  to  think  further  she  fell  on  her 
knees  and  reached  out  her  arms  to  him.  But  he  did  not 
take  her  to  his  bosom,  and  she  sobbed  till  touched  to 
the  heart  he  strove  to  console  her  with  kind  words,  never 
forgetting,  however,  to  introduce  a  hint  that  she  was  not 
responsible  for  her  actions. 

'Then  I'm  really  downright  mad?'  said  Kate,  rais- 
ing her  tear-stained  face  from  her  arms.  '  Did  the  doc- 
tor say  so  ?  ' 

This  was  by  far  too  direct  a  question  for  Dick  to 
answer;  it  were  better  to  equivocate. 

'  Well,  my  dear — mad  ?  He  didn't  say  that  you 
were  always  mad,  but  he  said  you  were  liable  to  fits, 
and  that  if  you  didn't  take  care  those  fits  would  grow 
upon  you,  and  you  would  become ' 

Then  he  hesitated  as  he  always  did  before  a  direct 
statement. 

'  But  what  did  he  say  I  must  do  to  get  well  ?  ' 

'  He  advised  that  you  should  go  to  a  home  where 
you  would  not  be  able  to  get  hold  of  any  liquor  and 
would  be  looked  after.' 

'  You  mean  a  madhouse.  You  wouldn't  put  me  in  a 
madhouse,  Dick  ? ' 

'  I  wouldn't  put  you  anywhere  where  you  didn't 
like  to  go;  but  he  said  nothing  about  a  madhouse.' 

'What  did  he  say,  then?' 

'  He  spoke  merely  of  one  of  those  houses  which  are 
under  medical  supervision,  and  where  anyone  can  go 
and  live  for  a  time;  a  kind  of  hospital,  you  know.' 

The  argument  was  continued  for  an  hour  or  more. 
Kate  wept  and  protested  against  being  locked  up  as 


412  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

a  mad  woman;  while  he,  conscious  of  the  strong  hold 
he  had  over  her,  reminded  her  in  a  thousand  ways  of 
the  danger  she  ran  of  awakening  one  morning  to  find 
herself  a  murderess.  Yet  it  is  difficult  to  persuade 
anyone  voluntarily  to  enter  a  lunatic  asylum,  no  matter 
how  irrefutable  the  reasons  advanced  may  be,  and  it 
was  not  until  Dick  on  one  side  skilfully  threatened  her 
with  separation,  and  tempted  her  on  the  other  with  the 
hope  of  being  cured  of  her  vice  and  living  with  him 
happily  ever  afterwards,  that  she  consented  to  enter 

Dr.  's  private  asylum,  Craven  Street,  Bloomsbury. 

But  even  then  the  battle  was  not  won,  for  when  he  sug- 
gested going  off  there  at  once,  he  very  nearly  brought 
another  fit  of  passion  down  on  his  head.  It  was  only 
the  extreme  lassitude  and  debility  produced  from  the 
excesses  of  last  night  that  saved  him. 

'  Oh,  Dick,  dear !  if  you  only  knew  how  I  love  you ! 
I  would  give  my  last  drop  of  blood  to  save  you  from 
harm.' 

'  I  know  you  would,  dear ;  it's  the  fault  of  that  con- 
founded drink,'  he  answered,  his  heart  tense  with  the 
hope  of  being  rid  of  her.  Then  the  packing  began.  Kate 
sat  disconsolate  on  the  sofa,  and  watched  Dick  folding 
up  her  dresses  and  petticoats.  It  seemed  to  her  that 
everything  had  ended,  and  wearily  she  collected  the 
pearls  which  had  been  scattered  in  last  night's  skirmish- 
ing. Some  had  been  trodden  on,  others  were  lost,  and 
only  about  half  the  original  number  could  be  found,  and 
shaken  with  nervousness  and  lassitude,  Kate  cried  and 
wrung  her  hands.  Dick  sat  next  her,  kind,  huge,  and 
indifferent,  even  as  the  world  itself. 

'  But  you'll  come  and  see  me  ?  You  promise  me  that 
you'll  come — that  you'll  come  very  often/ 

'Yes,  dear,  I'll  come  two  or  three  times  a  week;  but 
I  hope  that  you'll  be  well  soon — very  soon.' 


XXVIII 


THE  hope  Dick  expressed  that  his  wife  would  soon  be 
well  enough  to  return  home  was,  of  course,  untrue,  his 
hope  being  that  she  would  never  cross  the  doors  of  the 
house  in  Bloomsbury  whither  he  was  taking  her.  The 
empty  bed  awaiting  him  was  so  great  a  relief  that  he 
fell  on  his  knees  before  it  and  prayed  that  the  doctors 
might  judge  her  to  be  insane,  unsafe  to  be  at  large.  To 
wake  up  in  the  morning  alone  in  his  bed,  and  to  be  free 
to  go  forth  to  his  business  without  question  seemed  to 
him  like  Heaven.  But  the  pleasures  of  Heaven  last  for 
eternity,  and  Dick's  delight  lasted  but  for  two  days. 
Two  days  after  Kate  had  gone  into  the  asylum  a  letter 
came  from  one  of  the  doctors  saying  that  Mrs.  Lennox 
was  not  insane,  and  would  have  to  be  discharged. 

Dick  sank  into  a  chair  and  lay  there  almost  stunned, 
plunged  in  despair  that  was  like  a  thick  fog,  and  it 
did  not  lift  until  the  door  opened  and  Kate  stood  be- 
fore him  again. 

He  raised  his  head  and  looked  at  her  stupidly,  and 
interpreting  his  vacant  face,  she  said: 

'  Dick,  you're  sorry  to  have  me  back  again.' 

'  Sorry,  Kate  ?  Well,  if  things  were  different  I 
shouldn't  be  sorry.  But  you  see  the  blow  you  struck 
me  with  the  poker  very  nearly  did  for  me,  I  haven't 
been  the  same  man  since.' 

413 


414  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  Well/  she  said,  '  I  must  go  back  to  the  asylum  or 
the  home,  whatever  you  call  it,  and  tell  them  that  I  am 
mad.' 

'  There's  no  use  in  doing  that,  Kate,  they  wouldn't 
believe  you;  here  is  the  letter  I've  just  received,  read 
it.' 

'  But,  Dick,  there  must  be  some  way  out  of  this  dread- 
ful trouble,  and  yet  there  doesn't  seem  to  be  any.  Try 
to  think,  dear,  try  to  think.  Can  you  think  of  any- 
thing, dear?  I  don't  think  I  shall  give  way  again.  If 
I  only  had  something  to  do;  it's  because  I'm  always 
alone;  because  I  love  you;  because  I'm  jealous  of  that 
woman.' 

'  But,  Kate,  if  I  stop  here  with  you  all  day  we  shall 
starve.  I  must  go  to  business.' 

'  Ah,  business !  Business !  If  I  could  go  to  business 
too.  The  days  when  we  used  to  rehearse  went  merrily 
enough.' 

'  You  were  the  best  Clairette  I  ever  saw,'  Dick  an- 
swered ;  '  better  than  Paola  Marie,  and  I  ought  to  know, 
for  I  rehearsed  you  both.' 

'  I  shall  never  play  Clairette  again,'  Kate  said  sadly. 
'  I've  lost  my  figure  and  the  part  requires  a  waist.' 

'  You  might  get  your  waist  again,'  Dick  said,  and 
the  words  seemed  to  him  extraordinarily  silly,  but  he 
had  to  say  something. 

'  If  I  only  could  get  to  work  again,'  she  muttered 
to  herself,  and  then  turning  to  Dick 

'  Dick,  if  I  could  get  to  work  again ;  any  part  would 
do;  it  doesn't  matter  how  small,  just  to  give  me  some- 
thing to  think  about,  that's  all,  to  keep  my  mind  off  it. 
If  the  baby  had  not  died  I  should  have  had  her  to  look 
after  and  that  would  have  done  just  as  well  as  a  part. 
But  I've  disgraced  you  in  company;  I  don't  blame  you, 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  415 

you  couldn't  have  me  in  it,  and  I  couldn't  bring  myself 
to  sing  in  that  opera.' 

'  Yes,  you  would  only  break  out  again,  Kate.  Those 
jealous  fits  are  terrible.  You  think  you  could  restrain 
yourself,  but  you  couldn't;  and  all  that  would  come  of 
a  row  between  you  and  Mrs.  Forest  would  be  that  I 
should  lose  my  job.' 

'  I  know,  Dick,  I  know,'  Kate  cried  painfully,  '  but 
I  promise  you  that  I  never  will  again.  You  may  go 
where  you  please  and  do  what  you  please.  I  will  never 
say  a  word  to  you  again.' 

'  I'm  sure  you  believe  all  that  you  say,  Kate,  but  I 
cannot  get  you  a  job.  I  may  hear  of  something.  Mean- 
while  ' 

'  Meanwhile  I  shall  have  to  stay  here  and  alone  and 
no  way  of  escaping  from  the  hours,  those  long  dreary 
hours,  no  way  but  one.  Dick,  I'm  sorry  they  did  not 
keep  me  in  the  asylum,  it  would  have  been  better  for 
both  of  us  if  they  had,  and  if  I  could  go  back  there 
again,  if  you  will  take  me  back,  I  will  try  to  deceive 
the  doctors.' 

'  You  mean,  Kate,  that  you  would  play  the  mad 
woman?  I  doubt  if  any  woman  could  do  it  sufficiently 
well  to  deceive  the  doctors.  There  was  an  Italian  wo- 
man,' and  they  talked  of  the  great  Italian  actress  for 
some  time  and  then  Dick  said:  'Well,  Kate,  I  must  be 
about  my  business.  I'm  sorry  to  leave  you.' 

'  No,  Dick,  you're  not.' 

'  I  am,  dear,  in  a  way.     But  if  I  hear  of  anything 

and  he  left  the  house  knowing  that  there  was  no  fur- 
ther hope  for  himself.  He  was  tied  to  her  and  might 
be  killed  by  her  in  his  sleep,  but  that  would  not  mat- 
ter. What  did  matter  was  the  thought  that  was  always  at 
the  back  of  his  mind,  that  she  was  alone  in  that  Islington 
lodging-house  craving  for  drink,  striving  to  resist  it, 


416  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

falling  back  into  drink  and  might  be  coming  down  rav- 
ing to  the  theatre  to  insult  him  before  the  company. 
Insult  him  before  the  company!  That  had  been  done, 
she  had  done  her  worst,  and  he  was  indifferent  whether 
she  came  again,  only  she  must  not  meet  Mrs.  Forest.  On 
the  whole  he  felt  that  his  sorrow  was  with  Kate  her- 
self rather  than  himself  or  with  Mrs.  Forest.  '  God 
only  knows/  he  said  as  he  rushed  down  the  stairs,  '  what 
will  become  of  her.' 

Kate  was  asking  herself  the  same  question — what  was 
to  become  of  her?  Would  it  be  possible  for  her  to  find 
work  to  do  that  would  keep  her  mind  away  from  the 
drink?  She  seemed  for  the  moment  free  from  all  crav- 
ing, but  she  knew  what  the  craving  is,  how  overpower- 
ing in  the  throat  it  is,  and  how  when  one  has  got  one 
mouthful  one  must  go  on  and  on,  so  intense  is  the  de- 
light of  alcohol  in  the  throat  of  the  drunkard.  But 
there  was  no  craving  upon  her,  and  it  might  never  come 
again.  Every  morning  she  awoke  in  great  fear,  but  was 
glad  to  find  that  there  was  no  craving  in  her  throat, 
and  when  she  went  out  she  rejoiced  that  the  pub- 
lic-houses offered  no  attraction  to  her.  She  became 
brave;  and  fear  turned  to  contempt,  and  at  the  bottom 
of  her  heart  she  began  to  jeer  at  the  demon  which 
had  conquered  and  brought  her  to  ruin  and  which  she 
had  in  turn  conquered.  But  there  was  a  last  mockery 
she  did  not  dare,  for  she  knew  that  the  demon  was  but 
biding  his  time.  He  seemed,  however,  to  go  on  biding 
it,  and  Dick,  finding  Kate  reasonable  every  evening, 
came  home  to  dinner  earlier  so  that  the  day  should  not 
appear  to  her  intolerably  long.  But  his  business  often 
detained  him,  and  one  night  coming  home  late  he  no- 
ticed that  she  looked  more  sullen  than  usual,  that  her 
eyes  drooped  as  if  she  had  been  drinking.  A  month  of 
scenes  of  violence  followed ;  '  not  a  single  day  as  far 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  417 

as  I  can  remember  for  a  fortnight/  he  said  one  day  on 
leaving  the  house  and  running  to  catch  his  bus  to  the 
Strand,  '  have  we  had  a  quiet  evening.'  When  he  re- 
turned that  night  she  ran  at  him  with  a  knife,  and  he 
had  only  just  time  to  ward  off  the  blow.  The  house 
rang  with  shrieks  and  cries  of  all  sorts,  and  the  Lennoxes 
were  driven  from  one  lodging-house  to  another.  Trous- 
ers, dresses,  hats,  boots  and  shoes,  were  all  pawned. 
The  comic  and  the  pitiful  are  but  two  sides  of  the  same 
thing,  and  it  was  at  once  comic  and  pitiful  to  see  Dick, 
with  one  of  the  tails  of  his  coat  lost  in  the  scrimmage, 
talking  at  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  a  dispassionate 
policeman,  while  from  the  top  windows  the  high  treble 
voice  of  a  woman  disturbed  the  sullen  tranquillity  of  the 
London  night. 

And  yet  Dick  continued  with  her — continued  to  allow 
himself  to  be  beaten,  scratched,  torn  to  pieces  almost 
as  he  would  be  by  a  wild  beast.  Human  nature  can 
habituate  itself  even  to  pain,  and  it  was  so  with  him. 
He  knew  that  his  present  life  was  as  a  Nessus  shirt  on 
his  back,  and  yet  he  couldn't  make  up  his  mind  to  have 
done  with  it.  In  the  first  place,  he  pitied  his  wife;  in 
the  second,  he  did  not  know  how  to  leave  her ;  and  it  was 
not  until  after  another  row  with  Kate  for  having  been 
down  to  the  theatre  that  he  summoned  up  courage  to 
walk  out  of  the  house  with  a  fixed  determination  never 
to  return  again.  Kate  was  too  tipsy  at  the  time  to  pay 
much  attention  to  the  announcement  he  made  to  her  as 
lie  left  the  room.  Besides,  '  Wolf ! '  had  been  cried  so 
often  that  it  had  now  lost  its  terror  in  her  ears,  and 
it  was  not  until  next  day  that  she  began  to  experience 
any  very  certain  fear  that  Dick  and  she  had  at  last 
parted  for  ever.  But  when,  with  a  clammy,  thirsty 
mouth,  she  sat  rocking  herself  wearily,  and  the  long  idle- 
ness of  the  morning  hours  became  haunted  with  irritat- 


418  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

ing  remembrances  of  her  shameful  conduct,  of  the  cruel 
life  she  led  the  man  she  loved,  the  black  gulf  of  eter- 
nal separation  became,  as  it  were,  etched  upon  her 
mind;  and  she  heard  the  cold  depths  reverberating  with 
vain  words  and  foolish  prayers.  Then  her  thin  hands 
trembled  on  her  black  dress,  and  waves  of  shivering 
passed  over  her.  She  thought  involuntarily  that  a  little 
brandy  might  give  her  strength,  and  as  soon  hated  her- 
self for  the  thought.  It  was  brandy  that  had  brought 
her  to  this.  She  would  never  touch  it  again.  But 
Dick  had  not  left  her  for  ever;  he  would  come  back  to 
her;  she  could  not  live  without  him.  It  was  terrible! 
She  would  go  to  him,  and  on  her  knees  beg  his  pardon 
for  all  she  had  done.  He  would  forgive  her.  He  must 
forgive  her.  Such  were  the  fugitive  thoughts  that 
flashed  through  Kate's  mind  as  she  hurried  to  and  fro, 
seeking  for  her  bonnet  and  shawl.  She  would  go 
down  to  the  theatre  and  find  him;  she  would  be  sure  to 
hear  news  of  him  there,  she  said,  as  she  strove  to  brush 
away  the  mist  that  obscured  her  eyes.  She  could  see 
nothing;  things  seemed  to  change  their  places,  and  so 
terrible  were  the  palpitations  of  her  heart  that  she  was 
forced  to  cling  to  any  piece  of  furniture  within  reach. 
But  by  walking  very  slowly  she  contrived  to  reach  the 
stage-door  of  the  Opera  Comique,  feeling  very  weak  and 
ill. 

'  Is  Mr.  Lennox  in  ?  '  she  asked,  at  the  same  time  try- 
ing to  look  conciliatingly  at  the  hard-faced  hall-keeper. 

'  No,  ma'am,  he  ain't,'  was  the  reply. 

'  Who  attended  the  rehearsal  to-day,  then?  ' 

'  There  was  no  rehearsal  to-day,  ma'am — leastways 
Mr.  Lennox  dismissed  the  rehearsal  at  half-past  twelve.' 

'And  why?' 

'  Ah !  that  I  cannot  tell  you/ 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  419 

'  Could  you  tell  me  where  Mr.  Lennox  would  be  likely 
to  be  found?  ' 

'Indeed  I  couldn't,  ma'am;  I  believe  he's  gone  into 
the  country.' 

'  Gone  into  the  country ! '  echoed  Kate. 

'  But  may  I  ask,  ma'am,  if  you  be  Mrs.  Lennox?  Be- 
cause if  you  be,  Mr.  Lennox  left  a  letter  to  be  given  to 
you  in  case  you  called.' 

Her  eyes  brightened  at  the  idea  of  a  letter.  To  know 
the  worst  would  be  better  than  a  horrible  uncertainty, 
and  she  said  eagerly: 

'  Yes,  I'm  Mrs.  Lennox;  give  me  the  letter.' 

The  hall-keeper  handed  it  to  her,  and  she  walked  out 
of  the  narrow  passage  into  the  street,  so  as  to  be  free 
from  observation.  With  anxious  fingers  she  tore  open 
the  envelope,  and  read. 

'  MY  DEAR  KATE, — 

'  It  must  be  now  as  clear  to  you  as  it  is  to  me  that 
it  is  quite  impossible  for  us  to  go  on  living  together. 
There  is  no  use  in  our  again  discussing  the  whys  and  the 
wherefores;  we  had  much  better  accept  the  facts  of 'the 
case  in  silence,  and  mutually  save  each  other  the  pain  of 
trying  to  alter  what  cannot  be  altered. 

'  I  have  arranged  to  allow  you  two  pounds  a  week. 
This  sum  will  be  paid  to  you  every  Saturday,  by  apply- 
ing to  Messrs.  Jackson  and  Co.,  Solicitors,  Arundel 
Street,  Strand. 

'  Yours  very  affectionately, 

'  RICHARD  LENNOX.' 

Kate  mechanically  repeated  the  last  words  as  she 
walked  gloomily  through  the  glare  of  the  day.  '  Two 
pounds  a  week,'  she  said,  and  with  nothing  else,  not  a 
friend,  and  the  thought  passed  through  her  mind  that  she 


420  A   MUMMER'S   WIFE 

could  not  have  a  friend,  she  had  fallen  too  low,  yet  from 
no  fault  of  her  own  or  Dick's,  and  it  was  that  that  fright- 
ened her.  A  terrible  sense  of  loneliness,  of  desolation, 
was  created  in  her  heart.  For  her  the  world  seemed  to 
have  ended,  and  she  saw  the  streets  and  passers-by  with 
the  same  vague,  irresponsible  gaze  as  a  solitary  figure 
would  the  universal  ruin  caused  by  an  earthquake.  She 
had  no  friends,  no  occupation,  no  interest  of  any  kind  in 
life;  everything  had  slipped  from  her,  and  she  shivered 
with  a  sense  of  nakedness,  of  moral  destitution.  Noth- 
ing was  left  to  her,  and  yet  she  felt,  she  lived,  she 
was  conscious.  Oh  yes,  horribly  conscious.  And  that  was 
the  worst;  and  she  asked  herself  why  she  could  not 
pass  out  of  sight,  out  of  hearing  and  feeling  of  all  the 
crying  misery  with  which  she  was  surrounded,  and  in  a 
state  of  emotive  somnambulism  she  walked  through  the 
crowds  till  she  was  startled  from  her  dreams  by  hearing 
a  voice  calling  after  her,  '  Kate !  Kate ! — Mrs.  Len- 
nox!' 

It  was  Montgomery. 

'I'm  so  glad  to  have  met  you — so  glad,  indeed,  for 
we  have  not  seen  much  of  each  other.  I  don't  know 
how  it  was,  but  somehow  it  seemed  to  me  that  Dick 
did  not  want  me  to  go  and  see  you.  I  never  could  make 
out  why,  for  he  couldn't  have  been  jealous  of  me/  he 
added  a  little  bitterly.  '  But  perhaps  you've  not  heard 
that  it's  all  up  as  regards  my  piece  at  the  Opera  Co- 
mique/  he  continued,  not  noticing  Kate's  dejection  in 
his  excitement. 

'  No,  I  haven't  heard/  she  answered  mechanically. 

'  It  doesn't  matter  much,  though,  for  I've  just  been 
down  to  the  Gaiety,  and  pretty  well  settled  that  it's 
to  be  done  in  Manchester,  at  the  Prince's;  so  you  see 
I  don't  let  the  grass  grow  under  my  feet,  for  my  row 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  421 

with  Mrs.  Forest  only  occurred  this  morning.  But  what's 
the  matter,  Kate  ?  What  has  happened  ?  ' 

'  Oh,  nothing,  nothing.  Tell  me  about  Mrs.  Forest 
first;  I  want  to  know/ 

'  Well,  it's  the  funniest  thing  you  ever  heard  in  your 
life;  but  you  won't  tell  Dick,  because  he  forbade  me  ever 
to  speak  to  you  about  Mrs.  Forest — not  that  there  is 
anything  but  business  between  them ;  that  I  swear  to  you. 
But  do  tell  me,  Kate,  what  is  the  matter?  I  never  saw 
you  look  so  sad  in  my  life.  Have  you  had  any  bad 
news?  ' 

'  No,  no.  Tell  me  about  Mrs.  Forest  and  your  piece ; 
I  want  to  hear,'  she  exclaimed  excitedly. 

'  Well,  this  is  it,'  said  Montgomery,  who  saw  in  a 
glance  that  she  was  not  to  be  contradicted,  and  that  he 
had  better  get  on  with  his  story.  '  In  the  first  place,  you 
know  that  the  old  creature  has  gone  in  for  writing  libret- 
tos herself,  and  has  finished  one  about  Buddhism,  an 
absurdity;  the  opening  chorus  is  fifty  lines  long,  but  she 
won't  cut  one;  but  I'll  tell  you  about  that  after.  I  was 
to  get  one  hundred  for  setting  this  blessed  production  to 
music,  and  it  was  to  follow  my  own  piece,  which  was 
in  rehearsal.  Well,  like  a  great  fool,  I  was  explaining 
to  Dubois  the  bosh  I  was  writing  by  the  yard  for  this 
infernal  opera  of  hers.  I  couldn't  help  it;  she  wouldn't 
take  advice  on  any  point.  She  has  written  the  song  of  the 
Sun-god  in  hexameters.  I  don't  know  what  hexameters 
are,  but  I  would  as  soon  set  Bradshaw — leaving  St.  Pan- 
eras  nine  twenty-five,  arriving  at — ha!  ha!  ha! — with  a 
puff,  puff  accompaniment  on  the  trombone.' 

'  Go  on  with  the  story/  cried  Kate. 

'  Well,  I  was  explaining  all  this,'  said  Montgomery, 
suddenly  growing  serious,  '  when  out  she  darted  from 
behind  the  other  wing — I  never  knew  she  was  there.  She 
called  me  a  thief,  and  said  she  wouldn't  have  me  an- 


422  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

other  five  minutes  in  her  theatre.  Monti,  the  Italian  com- 
poser, was  sent  for.  I  was  shoved  out,  bag  and  baggage, 
and  there  will  be  no  more  rehearsals  till  the  new  music  is 
ready.  That's  all.' 

'  I'm  very  sorry  for  you — very  sorry,'  said  Kate  very 
quietly,  and  she  raised  her  hand  to  brush  away  a  tear. 

'  Oh,  I  don't  care;  I'd  sooner  have  the  piece  done  in 
Manchester.  Of  course  it's  a  bore,  losing  a  hundred 
pounds.  But,  oh,  Kate !  do  tell  me  what's  the  matter ; 
you  know  you  can  confide  in  me;  you  know  I'm  your 
friend.' 

At  these  kind  words  the  cold  deadly  grief  that  en- 
circled Kate's  heart  like  a  band  of  steel  melted,  and  she 
wept  profusely.  Montgomery  drew  her  arm  into  his  and 
pleaded  and  begged  to  be  told  the  reason  of  these  tears ; 
but  she  could  make  no  answer  and  pressed  Dick's  letter 
into  his  hand  with  a  passionate  gesture.  He  read  it  at 
a  glance,  and  then  hesitated,  unable  to  make  up  his 
mind  as  to  what  he  should  do.  No  words  seemed  to  him 
adequate  wherewith  to  console  her,  and  she  was  sobbing 
so  bitterly  that  it  was  beginning  to  attract  attention  in 
the  streets.  They  walked  on  without  speaking  for  a  few 
yards,  Kate  leaning  upon  Montgomery,  until  a  hackney 
coachman,  guessing  that  something  was  wrong,  signed  to 
them  with  his  whip. 

'  Where  are  you  living,  dear  ?  ' 

Kate  told  him  with  some  difficulty,  and  having  directed 
the  driver,  he  lapsed  again  into  considering  what  course 
he  should  adopt.  To  put  off  the  journey  was  impossible; 
Dick  had  promised  to  meet  him  there.  It  was  now  three 
o'clock.  He  had  therefore  three  hours  to  spend  with  Kate 
— with  the  woman  whom  he  had  loved  steadfastly 
throughout  a  loveless  life.  He  had  no  word  of  blame 
for  Dick;  he  had  heard  stories  that  had  made  his  blood 
run  cold;  and  yet,  knowing  her  faults  as  he  did,  he 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  423 

would  have  opened  his  arms  had  it  been  possible,  and 
crying  through  the  fervour  of  years  of  waiting,  said 
to  her,  '  Yes,  I  will  believe  in  you ;  believe  in  me  and 
you  shall  be  happy.'  There  had  never  been  a  secret 
between  them;  their  souls  had  been  for  ever  as  if 
in  communication;  and  the  love,  unacknowledged  in 
words,  had  long  been  as  sunlight  and  moonlight,  light- 
ing the  spaces  of  their  dream-life.  To  the  woman 
it  had  been  as  a  distant  star  whose  pale  light  was 
a  presage  of  quietude  in  hours  of  vexation;  to  the  man 
it  seemed  as  a  far  Elysium  radiant  with  sweet  longing, 
large  hopes  that  waxed  but  never  waned,  and  where 
the  sweet  breezes  of  eternal  felicity  blew  in  musical 
cadence. 

And  yet  he  was  deceived  in  nothing.  He  knew 
now  as  he  had  known  before,  that  although  this  dream 
might  haunt  him  for  ever,  he  should  never  hold  it  in 
his  arms  nor  press  it  to  his  lips;  and  in  the  midst 
of  this  surging  tide  of  misery  there  arose  a  desire  that, 
glad  in  its  own  anguish,  bade  him  increase  the  bitter- 
ness of  these  last  hours  by  making  a  confession  of  his 
suffering;  and,  exulting  savagely  in  the  martyrdom  he 
was  preparing  for  himself,  he  said: 

'  You  know,  Kate — I  know  you  must  know — you  must 
have  guessed  that  I  care  for  you.  I  may  as  well  tell 
you  the  truth  now — you  are  the  only  woman  I  ever 
loved.' 

'  Yes,'  she  said,  '  I  always  thought  you  cared  for  me. 
You  have  been  very  kind — oh !  very  kind,  and  I  often 
think  of  it.  Ah !  everybody  has,  all  my  life  long,  been 
very  good  to  me;  it  is  I  alone  who  am  to  blame,  who 
am  in  fault.  I  have,  I  know  I  have,  been  very  wicked, 
and  I  don't  know  why.  I  did  not  mean  it;  I  know  I 
didn't,  for  I'm  not  at  heart  a  wicked  woman.  I  sup- 
23 


424  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

pose  things  must  have  gone  against  me;  that's  about 
all.' 

Montgomery  pushed  his  glasses  higher  on  his  nose, 
and  after  a  long  silence  he  said: 

'  I've  often  thought  that  had  you  met  me  before  you 
knew  Dick,  things  might  have  been  different.  We  should 
have  got  on  better,  although  you  might  never  have  loved 
me  so  well.' 

Kate  raised  her  eyes,  and  she  said: 

'  No  one  will  ever  know  how  I  have  loved,  how  I  still 
love  that  man.  Oftentimes  I  think  that  had  I  loved 
him  less  I  should  have  been  a  better  wife.  I  think  he 
loved  me,  but  it  was  not  the  love  I  dreamed  of.  Like 
you,  I  was  always  sentimental,  and  Dick  never  cared  for 
that  sort  of  thing.' 

'  I  think  I  should  have  understood  you  better,'  said 
Montgomery;  and  the  conversation  came  to  a  pause.  A 
vision  of  the  life  of  devotion  spent  at  the  feet  of  an 
ideal  lover,  that  life  of  sacrifice  and  tenderness  which 
had  been  her  dream,  and  which  she  had  so  utterly  failed 
to  attain,  again  rose  up  to  tantalize  her  like  a  glitter- 
ing mirage:  and  she  could  not  help  wondering  whether 
she  would  have  realized  this  beautiful,  this  wonderful 
might-have-been  if  she  had  chosen  this  other  man. 

'  But  I  suppose  you'll  make  it  up  with  Dick,'  said 
Montgomery  somewhat  harshly. 

Kate  awoke  from  her  reverie  with  a  start,  and  an- 
swered sorrowfully  that  she  did  not  know,  that  she  was 
afraid  Dick  would  never  forgive  her  again. 

'  I  don't  remember  if  I  told  you  that  I'm  going  to  see 
him  in  Manchester;  he  promised  to  go  up  there  to  make 
some  arrangements  about  my  piece.' 

'  No,  you  didn't  tell  me.' 

'  Well,   I'll   speak   to   him.      I'll   tell   him    I've    seen 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  425 

you.     I  fancy  I  shall  be  able  to  make  it  all  right/  he 
added,  with  a  feeble  smile. 

'  Oh !  how  good  you  are — how  good  you  are,'  cried 
Kate,  clasping  her  hands.  '  If  he  will  only  forgive  me 
once  again,  I'll  promise,  I'll  swear  to  him  never  to — 

Here  Kate  stopped  abashed,  and  burying  her  face  in 
her  hands,  she  wept  bitterly.  The  tenderness,  the 
melancholy  serenity  of  their  interview,  had  somehow  sud- 
denly come  to  an  end.  Each  was  too  much  occupied  with 
his  or  her  thoughts  to  talk  much,  and  the  effort  to  find 
phrases  grew  more  and  more  irritating.  Both  were  very 
sad,  and  although  they  sighed  when  the  clock  struck  the 
hour  of  farewell,  they  felt  that  to  pass  from  one  pain  to 
another  was  in  itself  an  assuagement.  Kate  accompanied 
Montgomery  to  the  station.  He  seemed  to  her  to  be 
out  of  temper;  she  to  him  to  be  further  away  than  ever. 
The  explanation  that  had  taken  place  between  them  had, 
if  not  broken,  at  least  altered  the  old  bonds  of  sympathy, 
without  creating  new  ones;  and  they  were  discontented, 
even  like  children  who  remember  for  the  first  time  that 
to-day  is  not  yesterday. 

They  felt  lonely  watching  the  parallel  lines  of  plat- 
forms; and  when  Montgomery  waved  his  hand  for  the 
last  time,  and  the  train  rolled  into  the  luminous  arch  of 
sky  that  lay  beyond  the  glass  roofing,  Kate  turned  away 
overpowered  by  grief  and  cruel  recollections.  When  she 
got  home,  the  solitude  of  her  room  became  unbearable; 
she  wanted  someone  to  see,  someone  to  console  her.  She 
had  a  few  shillings  in  her  pocket,  but  she  remembered 
her  resolutions  and  for  some  time  resented  the  impervi- 
ous clutch  of  the  temptation.  But  the  sorrow  that  hung 
about  her,  that  penetrated  like  a  corrosive  acid  into  the 
very  marrow  of  her  bones,  grew  momentarily  more  burn- 
ing, more  unendurable.  Twenty  times  she  tried  to  wrench 


426  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

it  out  of  her  heart.  The  landlady  brought  her  up  some 
tea;  she  could  not  drink  it;  it  tasted  like  soapsuds  in  her 
mouth.  Then,  knowing  well  what  the  results  would  be, 
she  resolved  to  go  out  for  a  walk. 

Next  day  she  was  ill,  and  to  pull  herself  together  it 
was  necessary  to  have  a  drink.  It  would  not  do  to  look 
too  great  a  sight  in  the  solicitor's  office  where  Dick  had 
told  her  in  his  letter  to  go  to  get  her  money.  There 
she  found  not  two,  but  five  pounds  awaiting  her,  and 
this  enabled  her  to  keep  up  a  stage  of  semi-intoxication 
until  the  end  of  the  week. 

She  at  last  woke  up  speechless,  suffering  terrible  pal- 
pitations of  the  heart,  but  she  had  strength  enough  to 
ring  her  bell,  and  when  the  landlady  came  to  her  she 
nearly  lost  her  balance  and  fell  to  the  ground,  so 
strenuously  did  Kate  lean  and  cling  to  her  for  support. 
After  gasping  painfully  for  some  moments  Kate  mut- 
tered: 'I'm  dying.  These  palpitations  and  the  pain  in 
my  side/  • 

The  landlady  asked  if  she  would  like  to  see  the  doc- 
tor, and  with  difficulty  obtained  her  consent  that  the  doc- 
tor should  be  sent  for. 

'  I'll  send  at  once/  she  said. 

'  No,  not  at  once/  Kate  cried.  '  Pour  me  out  a  little 
brandy  and  water  and  I'll  see  how  I  am  in  the  course  of 
the  day/ 

The  woman  did  as  was  desired,  and  Kate  told  her  that 
she  felt  better,  and  that  if  it  wasn't  for  the  pains  in 
her  side  she'd  be  all  right. 

The  landlady  looked  a  little  incredulous;  but  her 
lodger  had  only  been  with  her  a  fortnight,  and  so  care- 
fully had  the  brandy  been  hidden,  and  the  inebriety  con- 
cealed, that  although  she  had  her  doubts,  she  was  not 
yet  satisfied  that  Kate  was  an  habitual  drunkard.  Cer- 
tainly appearances  were  against  Mrs.  Lennox;  but  as 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  427 

regards  the  brandy  bottle,  she  had  watched  it  very  care- 
fully, and  was  convinced  that  scarcely  more  than  six- 
penny worth  of  liquor  went  out  of  it  daily.  The  good 
woman  did  not  know  how  it  was  replenished  from  an- 
other bottle  that  came  sometimes  from  under  the  mat- 
tress, sometimes  out  of  the  chimney.  And  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  husband  was  satisfactorily  accounted  for 
by  the  announcement  that  he  had  gone  to  Manchester 
to  produce  a  new  piece.  Besides,  Mrs.  Lennox  was  a 
very  nice  person;  it  was  a  pleasure  to  attend  to  her,  and 
during  the  course  of  the  afternoon  Mrs.  White  called 
several  times  at  the  second  floor  to  inquire  after  her 
lodger's  health. 

But  there  was  no  change  for  the  better.  Looking  the 
picture  of  wretchedness,  Kate  lay  back  in  her  chair,  de- 
claring in- low  moans  that  she  never  felt  so  ill  in  her 
life — that  the  pain  in  her  side  was  killing  her.  At  first, 
Mrs.  White  seemed  inclined  to  make  light  of  all  this 
complaining,  but  towards  evening  she  began  to  grow 
alarmed,  and  urged  that  the  doctor  should  be  sent  for. 

'  I  assure  you,  ma'am,'  she  said,  '  it's  always  better 
to  see  a  doctor.  The  money  is  never  thrown  away; 
for  even  if  there's  nothing  serious  the  matter,  it  eases 
one's  mind  to  be  told  so.' 

Kate  was  generally  easy  to  persuade,  but  fearing  that 
her  secret  drinking  would  be  discovered,  she  declined 
for  a  long  time  to  take  medical  advice.  At  last  she  was 
obliged  to  give  way,  and  the  die  having  been  cast,  she 
commenced  to  think  how  she  might  conceal  part  of  the 
truth.  Something  of  the  coquetry  of  the  actress  returned 
to  her,  and,  getting  up  from  her  chair,  she  went  over 
to  the  glass  to  examine  herself,  and  brushing  back  her 
hair,  she  said  sorrowfully: 

'  I'm  a  complete  wreck.  I  can't  think  what's  the  mat- 
ter with  me,  and  I've  lost  all  my  hair.  You've  no  idea, 


428  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

Mrs.  White,  of  the  beautiful  hair  I  used  to  have;  it 
used  to  fall  in  armfuls  over  my  shoulders;  now,  it's 
no  more  than  a  wisp.' 

'  I  think  you've  a  great  deal  yet/  replied  Mrs.  White, 
not  wishing  to  discourage  her. 

'  And  how  yellow  I  am  too ! ' 

To  this  Mrs.  White  mumbled  something  that  was  in- 
audible, and  Kate  thought  suddenly  of  her  rouge-pot 
and  hare's-foot.  Her  '  make-up,'  and  all  her  little  sou- 
venirs of  Dick,  lay  securely  packed  away  in  an  old 
band-box. 

'  Mrs.  White/  she  said,  '  might  I  ask  you  to  get  me  a 
jug  of  hot  water?  ' 

When  the  woman  left  the  room,  everything  was  spread 
hurriedly  over  the  toilet-table.  To  see  her,  one  would 
have  thought  that  the  call-boy  had  knocked  at  the  door 
for  the  second  time.  A  thin  coating  of  cold  cream  was 
passed  over  the  face  and  neck;  then  the  powder-puff 
changed  what  was  yellow  into  white,  and  the  hare's-foot 
gave  a  bloom  to  the  cheeks.  The  pencil  was  not  neces- 
sary, her  eyebrows  being  by  nature  dark  and  well-defined. 
Then  all  disappeared  again  into  the  band-box,  a  drain 
was  taken  out  of  the  bottle  whilst  she  listened  to  steps 
on  the  stairs,  and  she  had  just  time  to  get  back  to  her 
chair  when  the  doctor  entered.  She  felt  quite  prepared 
to  receive  him.  Mrs.  White,  who  had  come  up  at  the 
same  time,  looked  uneasily  around;  and,  after  hesitat- 
ing about  the  confines  of  the  room,  she  put  the  water-jug 
on  the  rosewood  cabinet,  and  said : 

'  I  think  I'll  leave  you  alone  with  the  doctor,  ma'am; 
if  you  want  me  you'll  ring.' 

Mr.  Hooper  was  a  short,  stout  man,  with  a  large 
bald  forehead,  and  long  black  hair;  his  small  eyes  were 
watchful  as  a  ferret's,  and  his  fat  chubby  hands  were 
constantly  laid  on  his  knee-caps. 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  429 

'  I  met  Mrs.  White's  servant  in  the  street/  he  said, 
looking  at  Kate  as  if  he  were  trying  to  read  through 
the  rouge  on  her  face,  '  so  I  came  at  once.  Mrs.  White, 
with  whom  I  was  speaking  down  stairs,  tells  me  that 
you're  suffering  from  a  pain  in  your  side.' 

'  Yes,  doctor,  on  the  right  side;  and  I've  not  been  feel- 
ing very  well  lately.' 

'  Is  your  appetite  good  ?  Will  you  let  me  feel  your 
pulse  ?' 

'  No,  I've  scarcely  any  appetite  at  all — particularly 
in  the  morning.  I  can't  touch  anything  for  breakfast.' 

'  Don't  you  care  to  drink  anything?  Aren't  you 
thirsty  ?' 

Kate  would  have  liked  to  have  told  a  lie,  but  fearing 
that  she  might  endanger  her  life  by  doing  so,  she  an- 
swered : 

'Oh,  yes!  I'm  constantly  very  thirsty.' 

'  Especially  at  night-time?' 

It  was  irritating  to  have  your  life  read  thus;  and 
Kate  felt  angry  when  she  saw  this  dispassionate  man 
watching  the  brandy-bottle,  which  she  had  forgotten  to 
put  away. 

'  Do  you  ever  find  it  necessary  to  take  any  stimu- 
lant?' 

Grasping  at  the  word  '  necessary,'  she  replied : 

'Yes,  doctor;  my  life  isn't  a  very  happy  one,  and  I 
often  feel  so  low,  so  depressed,  as  it  were,  that  if  I 
didn't  take  a  little  something  to  keep  me  up  I  think  I 
should  do  away  with  myself.' 

*'  Your  husband  is  an  actor,  I  believe?' 

'  Yes ;  but  he's  at  present  up  in  Manchester,  produc- 
ing a  new  piece.  I'm  on  the  stage,  too.  I've  been  play- 
ing a  round  of  leading  parts  in  the  provinces,  but  since 
I've  been  in  London  I've  been  out  of  an  engagement.' 

'  I  just  asked  you  because  I  noticed  you  used  a  little 


430  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

powder,  you  know,  on  the  face.  Of  course,  I  can't 
judge  at  present  what  your  complexion  is;  but  have 
you  noticed  any  yellowness  about  the  skin  lately?' 

The  first  instinct  of  a  woman  who  drinks  is  to  con- 
ceal her  vice,  and  although  she  was  talking  to  a  doctor, 
Kate  was  again  conscious  of  a  feeling  of  resentment 
against  the  merciless  eyes  which  saw  through  nil  the 
secrets  of  her  life.  But,  cowed,  as  it  were,  by  the  certi- 
tude expressed  by  the  doctor's  looks  and  words,  she 
strove  to  equivocate,  and  answered  humbly  that  she  no- 
ticed her  skin  was  not  looking  as  clear  as  it  used  to. 
Dr.  Hooper  then  questioned  her  further.  He  asked  if 
she  suffered  from  a  sense  of  uncomfortable  tension,  full- 
ness, weight,  especially  after  meals;  if  she  felt  any 
pain  in  her  right  shoulder?  and  she  confessed  that  he 
was  right  in  all  his  surmises. 

'  Do  tell  me,  doctor,  what  is  the  matter  with  me.  I 
assure  you  I'd  really  much  sooner  know  the  worst.' 

But  the  doctor  did  not  seem  inclined  to  be  communi- 
cative, and  in  reply  to  her  question  he  merely  mum- 
bled something  to  the  effect  that  the  liver  was  out  of 
order. 

'  I  will  send  you  over  some  medicine  this  evening,' 
he  said,  '  and  if  you  don't  feel  better  to-morrow  send 
round  for  me,  and  don't  attempt  to  get  up.  I  think,' 
he  added,  as  he  took  up  his  hat  to  go,  '  I  shall  be  able 
to  put  you  all  right.  But  you  must  follow  my  instruc- 
tions; you  mustn't  frighten  yourself,  and  take  as  little 
of  that  stimulant  as  possible.' 

Kate  answered  that  it  was  not  her  custom  to  take  too 
much,  and  she  tried  to  look  surprised  at  the  warning. 
She  nevertheless  derived  a  good  deal  of  comfort  from 
the  doctor's  visit,  and  during  the  course  of  the  evening 
succeeded  in  persuading  herself  that  her  fears  of  the 
morning  were  ill-founded,  and,  putting  the  medicine 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  431 

that  was  sent  her  away  for  the  present,  she  helped  her- 
self from  a  bottle  that  was  hidden  in  the  upholstery. 
The  fact  of  having  a  long  letter  to  write  to  Dick,  ex- 
plaining her  conduct,  made  it  quite  necessary  that  she 
should  take  something  to  keep  her  up,  and  sitting  in 
her  lonely  room,  she  drank  on  steadily  until  midnight, 
when  she  could  only  just  drag  her  clothes  from  her  back 
and  throw  herself  stupidly  into  bed.  There  she  passed 
a  night  full  of  livid-hued  nightmares,  from  which  she 
awoke  shivering,  and  suffering  from  terrible  palpita- 
tions of  the  heart.  The  silence  of  the  house  filled  her 
with  terrors,  cold  and  obtuse  as  the  dreams  from  which 
she  awakened.  Strength  to  scream  for  help  she  had 
none;  and  thinking  she  was  going  to  die,  she  sought  for 
relief  and  consolation  in  the  bottle  that  lay  hidden 
under  the  carpet.  When  the  drink  took  effect  upon  her 
she  broke  out  into  a  profuse  perspiration,  and  she  man- 
aged to  get  a  little  sleep;  but  when  her  breakfast  was 
brought  up  about  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning,  so  ill 
did  she  seem  that  the  servant,  fearing  she  was  going 
to  drop  down  dead,  begged  to  be  allowed  to  fetch  the 
doctor.  But  rejecting  all  offers  of  assistance,  Kate  lay 
moaning  in  an  armchair,  unable  even  to  taste  the  cup  of 
tea  that  the  maid  pressed  upon  her.  She  consented  to 
take  some  of  the  medicines  that  were  ordered  her,  but 
whatever  good  they  might  have  produced  was  discounted 
by  the  constant  nip-drinking  she  kept  up  during  the 
afternoon.  The  next  day  she  was  very  ill  indeed,  and 
Mrs.  White,  greatly  alarmed,  insisted  on  sending  for 
Dr.  Hooper. 

He  did  not  seem  astonished  at  the  change  in  his  pa- 
tient. Calmly  and  quietly  he  watched  for  some  mo- 
ments in  silence. 

The  bed  had  curtains  of  a  red  and  antiquated  mate- 
rial, and  these  contrasted  with  the  paleness  of  the  sheets 


432  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

wherein  Kate  lay,  tossing  feverishly.  Most  of  the 
'  make-up  '  had  been  rubbed  away  from  her  face ;  and 
through  patches  of  red  and  white  the  yellow  skin  started 
like  blisters.  She  was  slightly  delirious,  and  when  the 
doctor  took  her  hand  to  feel  her  pulse  she  gazed  at  him 
with  her  big  staring  eyes  and  spoke  volubly  and  ex- 
citedly. 

'  Oh !  I'm  so  glad  you've  come,  for  I  wanted  to  speak 
to  you  about  my  husband.  I  think  I  told  you  that  he'd 
gone  to  Manchester  to  produce  a  new  piece.  I  don't 
know  if  I  led  you  to  suppose  that  he'd  deserted  me,  but 
if  I  did  I  was  wrong  to  do  so,  for  he  has  done  nothing 
of  the  kind.  It's  true  that  we  aren't  very  happy  to- 
gether, but  I  dare  say  that  is  my  fault.  I  never  was,  I 
know,  as  good  a  wife  to  him  as  I  intended  to  be;  but 
then  he  made  me  jealous  and  sometimes  I  was  mad. 
Yes,  I  think  I  must  have  been  mad  to  have  spoken  to 
him  in  the  way  I  did.  Anyhow,  it  doesn't  matter  now, 
does  it,  doctor?  But  I  don't  know  what  I'm  saying. 
Still,  you  won't  mention  that  I've  told  you  anything.  It's 
as  likely  as  not  that  he'll  forgive  me,  just  as  he  did  be- 
fore; and  we  may  yet  be  as  happy  as  we  were  at  Black- 
pool. You  won't  tell  him,  will  you,  doctor?' 

'  No,  no,  I  won't,'  said  Dr.  Hooper,  quietly  and 
firmly.  '  But  you  mustn't  talk  as  much  as  you  do ;  if 
you  want  to  see  your  husband,  you  must  get  well  first.' 

'  Oh,  yes !  I  must  get  well ;  but  tell  me,  doctor,  how 
long  will  that  take?' 

'  Not  very  long,  if  you  will  keep  quiet  and  do  what 
I  tell  you.  I  want  you  to  tell  me  how  the  pain  in  your 
side  is?' 

'  Very  bad ;  far  worse  than  when  I  saw  you  last.  I 
feel  it  now  in  my  right  shoulder  as  well.' 

'  But  your  side — is  it  sore  when  you  touch  it?  Will 
you  let  me  feel?' 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  433 

Without  waiting  for  a  reply,  he  passed  his  hand 
under  the  sheet.  '  Is  it  there  that  it  pains  you?' 

'  Yes,  yes.     Oh !     You're  hurting  me.' 

Then  the  doctor  walked  aside  with  the  landlady,  who 
had  been  watching  the  examination  of  the  patient  with 
anxious  eyes.  She  said: 

'  Do  you  think  it's  anything  very  dangerous  ?  Is  it 
contagious?  Had  I  better  send  her  to  the  hospital?' 

'  No,  I  should  scarcely  think  it  worth  while  doing 
that;  she  will  be  well  in  a  week,  that  is  to  say  if  she 
is  properly  looked  after.  She's  suffering  from  acute 
congestion  of  the  liver,  brought  on  by ' 

'  By  drink,'  said  Mrs.  White.     '  I  suspected  as  much.' 

'  You've  too  much  to  do,  Mrs.  White,  with  all  your 
children,  to  give  up  your  time  to  nursing  her;  I  shall 
send  someone  round  as  soon  as  possible,  but,  in  the 
meantime,  will  you  see  that  her  diet  is  regulated  to 
half  a  cup  of  beef- tea,  every  hour  or  so.  If  she  com- 
plains of  thirst,  let  her  have  some  milk  to  drink,  and 
you  may  mix  a  little  brandy  with  it.  To-night  I  shall 
send  round  a  sleeping-draught.' 

'  You're  sure,  doctor,  there  is  nothing  catching,  for, 
you  know,  that  with  all  my  children  in  the  house ' 

'  You  need  not  be  alarmed,  Mrs.  White.' 

'  But  do  you  think,  doctor,  it  will  be  an  expensive  ill- 
ness? for  I  know  very,  little  about  her  circumstances.' 

'  I  expect  she'll  be  all  right  in  a  week  or  ten  days, 
but  what  I  fear  for  is  her  future.  I've  had  a  good  deal 
of  experience  in  such  matters,  and  I've  never  known  a 
case  of  a  woman  who  cured  herself  of  the  vice  of  in- 
temperance. A  man  sometimes,  a  woman  never.' 

The  landlady  sighed  and  referred  to  all  she  had  gone 
through  during  poor  Mr.  White's  lifetime;  the  doctor 
spoke  confidingly  of  a  lady  who  was  at  present  under 
his  charge;  and,  apparently  overcome  with  pity  for  suf- 


434  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

fering  humanity,  they  descended  the  staircase  together. 
On  the  doorstep  the  conversation  was  continued. 

'  Very  well,  then,  doctor,  I  will  take  your  advice ;  but 
at  the  end  of  a  week  or  so,  when  she  is  quite  recovered, 
I  shall  tell  her  that  I've  let  her  rooms.  For,  as  you 
say,  a  woman  rarely  cures  herself,  and  before  the  chil- 
dren the  example  would  be  dreadful.' 

'  I  expect  to  see  her  on  her  feet  in  about  that  time, 
then  you  can  do  as  you  please.  I  shall  call  to-morrow.' 

Next  day  the  professional  nurse  took  her  place  by  the 
bedside.  The  sinapism  which  the  doctor  ordered  was 
applied  to  the  hepatic  region,  and  a  small  dose  of  calo- 
mel was  administered. 

Under  this  treatment  she  improved  rapidly;  but  un- 
fortunately, as  her  health  returned,  her  taste  for  drink 
increased  in  a  like  proportion.  Indeed,  it  was  almost 
impossible  to  keep  her  from  it,  and  on  one  occasion  she 
tried  very  cunningly  to  outwit  the  nurse,  who  had  fallen 
asleep  in  her  chair.  Waiting  patiently  until  the  woman's 
snoring  had  become  sufficiently  regular  to  warrant  the 
possibilty  of  a  successful  attempt  being  made  on  the 
brandy-bottle,  Kate  slipped  noiselessly  out  of  bed.  The 
unseen  nightlight  cast  a  rosy  glow  over  the  convex  side 
of  the  basin,  without,  however,  disturbing  the  bare  dark- 
ness of  the  wall.  Kate  knew  that  all  the  bottles  stood 
in  a  line  upon  the  chest  of  drawers,  but  it  was  difficult 
to  distinguish  one  from  the  other,  and  the  jingling  she 
made  as  she  fumbled  amid  them  awoke  the  nurse,  who 
divining  at  once  what  was  happening,  arose  quickly 
from  her  chair  and  advancing  rapidly  towards  her,  said: 

'  No,  ma'am,  I  really  can't  allow  it;  it's  against  the 
doctor's  orders.' 

'  I'm  not  going  to  die  of  thirst  to  please  any  doctor. 
I  was  only  going  to  take  a  little  milk.  I  suppose  there's 
no  harm  in  that?' 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  435 

'  Not  the  least,  ma'am,  and  if  you'd  called  me  you 
should  have  had  it.' 

It  was  owing  to  this  fortuitous  intervention  that  when 
Dr.  Hooper  called  a  couple  of  days  after  to  see  his 
patient  he  was  able  to  certify  to  a  remarkable  change 
for  the  better  in  her.  All  the  distressing  symptoms  had 
disappeared;  the  pain  in  her  side  had  died  aWay;  the 
complexion  was  clearer.  He  therefore  thought  himself 
justified  in  ordering  for  her  lunch  a  little  fish  and  some 
weak  brandy  and  water;  and  to  Kate,  who  had  not  eaten 
any  solid  food  for  several  days,  this  first  meal  took  the 
importance  of  a  very  exceptional  event.  Sitting  by  her 
bedside  Dr.  Hooper  spoke  to  her. 

'  Now,  Mrs.  Lennox/  he  said,  '  I  want  to  give  you  a 
word  of  warning.  I've  seen  you  through  what  I  must 
specify  as  a  serious  illness;  dangerous  I  will  not  call 
it,  although  I  might  do  so  if  I  were  to  look  into  the 
future  and  anticipate  the  development  the  disease  will 
most  certainly  take,  unless,  indeed,  you  will  be  guided 
by  me,  and  make  a  vow  against  all  intoxicating  liquors.' 

At  this  direct  allusion  to  her  vice  Kate  stopped  eat- 
ing, and  putting  down  the  fork  looked  at  the  doctor. 

'  Now,  Mrs.  Lennox,  you  musn't  be  angry,'  he  con- 
tinued in  his  kind  way.  '  I'm  speaking  to  you  in  my 
capacity  as  a  medical  man,  and  I  must  warn  you  against 
the  continuous  nip-drinking  which,  of  course,  I  can  see 
you're  in  the  habit  of  indulging  in,  and  which  was  the 
cause  of  the  illness  from  which  you  are  recovering.  I 
will  not  harrow  your  feelings  by  referring  to  all  the 
cases  that  have  come  under  my  notice  where  shame,  dis- 
grace, ruin,  and  death  were  the  result  of  that  one  mel- 
ancholy failing — drink/ 

'  Oh,  sir !'  cried  Kate,  broken-hearted,  '  if  you  only 
knew  how  unhappy  I've  been,  how  miserable  I  am,  you 
would  not  speak  to  me  so.  I've  my  failing,  it  is  true, 


436  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

but  I'm  driven  to  it.  I  love  my  husband  better  than 
anything  in  the  world,  and  I  see  him  mixed  up  always 
with  a  lot  of  girls  at  the  theatre,  and  it  sends  me  mad, 
and  then  I  go  to  drink  so  as  to  forget.' 

'  We've  all  got  our  troubles ;  but  it  doesn't  relieve  us 
of  the  burden,  it  only  makes  us  forget  it  for  a  short 
time,  and  then,  when  consciousness  returns  to  us,  we 
only  remember  it  all  the  more  bitterly.  No,  Mrs.  Len- 
nox, take  my  advice.  In  a  few  days,  when  you're  well, 
go  to  your  husband,  demand  his  forgiveness,  and  re- 
solve then  never  to  touch  spirits  again.' 

'  It's  very  good  of  you  to  speak  to  me  in  this  way/ 
said  Kate,  tearfully,  '  and  I  will  take  your  advice.  The 
very  first  day  that  I  am  strong  enough  to  walk  down  to 
the  Strand  I  will  go  and  see  my  husband,  and  if  he  will 
give  me  another  trial,  he  will  not,  I  swear  to  you,  have 
cause  to  repent  it.  Oh !'  she  continued,  '  you  don't  know 
how  good  he's  been  to  me,  how  he  has  borne  with  me. 
If  it  hadn't  been  that  he  tried  my  temper  by  flirting 
with  other  women  we  might  have  been  happy  now.' 

Then,  as  Kate  proceeded  to  speak  of  her  trials  and 
temptations,  she  grew  more  and  more  excited  and  hys- 
terical, until  the  doctor,  fearing  that  she  would  bring 
on  a  relapse,  was  forced  to  plead  an  engagement  and 
wish  her  good-bye. 

As  he  left  the  room  she  cried  after  him,  '  The  first 
day  I'm  well  enough  to  go  out  I'll  go  and  see  my  hus- 
band.' 


XXIX 


THE  next  few  days  passed  like  dreams.  Kate's  soul, 
tense  with  the  longing  for  reconciliation,  floated  at  ease 
over  the  sordid  miseries  that  lay  within  and  without  her, 
and  enraptured  with  expectation,  she  lived  in  a  beau- 
tiful paradise  of  hope. 

So  certain  did  she  feel  of  being  able  to  cross  out  the 
last  few  years  of  her  life,  that  her  mind  was  scarcely 
clouded  by  a  doubt  of  the  possibility  of  his  declining 
to  forgive  her — that  he  might  even  refuse  to  see  her. 
The  old  days  seemed  charming  to  her,  and  looking 
back,  even  she  seemed  to  have  been  perfect  then.  There 
her  life  appeared  to  have  begun.  She  never  thought  of 
Hanley  now.  Ralph  and  Mrs.  Ede  were  like  dim 
shadows  that  had  no  concern  in  her  existence.  The  pot- 
teries and  the  hills  were  as  the  recollections  of  child- 
hood, dim  and  unimportant.  The  footlights  and  the  ap- 
plause of  audiences  were  also  dying  echoes  in  her  ears. 
Her  life  for  the  moment  was  concentrated  in  a  loving 
memory  of  a  Lancashire  seashore  and  a  rose-coloured 
room,  where  she  used  to  sit  on  the  knees  of  the  man  she 
adored.  The  languors  and  the  mental  weakness  of  con- 
valescence were  conducive  to  this  state  of  mental  exalta- 
tion. She  loved  him  better  than  anyone  else  could  love 
him;  she  would  never  touch  brandy  again.  He  would 
take  her  back,  and  they  would  live  as  the  lovers  did  in 

437 


438  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

all  the  novels  she  had  ever  read.  These  illusions  filled 
Kate's  mind  like  a  scarf  of  white  mist  hanging  around 
the  face  of  a  radiant  morning,  and  as  she  lay  back  amid 
the  pillows,  or  sat  dreaming  by  the  fireside  in  the  long 
evenings  that  were  no  longer  lonely  to  her,  she  formed 
plans,  and  considered  how  she  should  plead  to  Dick  in 
this  much  desired  interview.  During  this  period  dozens 
of  letters  were  written  and  destroyed,  and  it  was  not 
until  the  time  arrived  for  her  to  go  to  the  theatre  to  see 
him  that  she  could  decide  upon  what  she  could  write. 
Then  hastily  she  scribbled  a  note,  but  her  hand  trem- 
bled so  much  that  before  she  had  said  half  what  she  in- 
tended the  paper  was  covered  with  blotched  and  blurred 
lines. 

'  It  won't  do  to  let  him  think  I'm  drunk  again,'  she 
said  to  herself,  as  she  threw  aside  what  she  had  written 
and  read  over  one  of  her  previous  efforts.  It  ran  as 
follows : 

'  MY  DARLING  DICK, — 

'  You  will,  I  am  sure,  be  sorry  to  hear  that  I 
have  been  very  ill.  I  am  now,  however,  much  better; 
indeed,  I  may  say  quite  recovered.  During  my  illness 
I  have  been  thinking  over  our  quarrels,  and  I  now  see 
how  badly,  how  wickedly,  I  have  behaved  to  you  on 
many  occasions.  I  do  not  know,  and  I  scarcely  dared 
to  hope,  that  you  will  ever  forgive  me,  but  I  trust  that 
you  will  not  refuse  to  see  me  for  a  few  minutes.  I  have 
not,  I  assure  you,  tasted  spirits  for  some  weeks,  so  you 
need  not  fear  I  will  kick  up  a  row.  I  will  promise  to 
be  very  quiet.  I  will  not  reproach  you,  nor  get  excited, 
nor  raise  my  voice.  I  shall  be  very  good,  and  will  not 
detain  you  but  for  a  very  short  time.  You  will  not,  you 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  439 

cannot,  oh,  my  darling!  deny  me  this  one  little  request 
— to  see  you  again,  although  only  for  a  few  minutes. 
'  Your  affectionate  wife, 

'  KATE.' 

Compared  with  the  fervid  thoughts  of  her  brain, 
these  words  appeared  to  her  weak  and  poor,  but  feeling 
that  for  the  moment,  at  least,  she  could  not  add  to  their 
intensity,  she  set  out  on  her  walk,  hoping  to  find  her 
husband  at  the  theatre. 

It  was  about  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening.  A  light, 
grey  fog  hung  over  the  background  of  the  streets,  and 
the  line  of  the  housetops  was  almost  lost  in  the  morose 
shadows  that  fell  from  a  soot-coloured  sky.  Here  and 
there  a  chimney-stack  or  the  sharp  spire  of  a  church 
tore  the  muslin-like  curtains  of  descending  mist;  and 
vague  as  the  mist  were  her  thoughts.  The  streets 
twisted,  wriggling  their  luminous  way  through  slime 
and  gloom,  whilst  at  every  turning  the  broad,  flaring 
windows  of  the  public-houses  marked  the  English  high- 
way. But  Kate  paid  no  attention  to  the  red-lettered 
temptations.  Docile  and  hopeful  as  a  tired  animal 
thinking  of  its  stable,  she  walked  through  the  dark 
crowd  that  pressed  upon  her,  nor  did  she  even  notice 
when  she  was  jostled,  but  went  on,  a  heedless  nonde- 
script— a  something  in  a  black  shawl  and  a  quasi- 
respectable  bonnet,  a  slippery  stepping-stone  between 
the  low  women  who  whispered  and  the  workwoman  who 
hurried  home  with  the  tin  of  evening  beer  in  her  hand. 
Like  one  held  and  guided  by  the  power  of  a  dream,  she 
lost  consciousness  of  all  that  was  not  of  it.  Thoughts 
of  how  Dick  would  receive  her  and  forgive  her  were 
folded,  entangled  and  broken  within  narrow  limits  of 
time;  half  an  hour  passed  like  a  minute,  and  she  found 
29 


440  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

herself  at  the  stage-door  of  the  theatre.  Drawing  the 
letter  from  her  pocket,  she  said  to  the  hallkeeper: 

'  Will  you  kindy  give  Mr.  Lennox  this  letter  ?  Has 
he  arrived  yet?' 

'  Yes,  but  he's  busy  for  the  moment.  But/  the  man 
added,  as  he  examined  Kate's  features  narrowly,  '  you'll 
excuse  me,  I  made  a  mistake;  Mr.  Lennox  isn't  in  the 
theatre.' 

At  that  moment  the  swinging  door  was  thrust  open, 
and  the  call-boy  screamed: 

'  Mr.  Lennox  says  you're  not  to  let  Miss  Thomas  pass 
to-night,  and  if  there  are  any  letters  for  him  I'm  to 
take  them  in.' 

'  Here's  one;  will  you  give  it  to  Mr.  Lennox?'  said 
Kate,  eagerly  thrusting  forward  her  note.  '  Say  that 
I'm  waiting  for  an  answer.' 

The  stage-door  keeper  tried  to  interpose,  but  before 
he  could  explain  himself  the  boy  had  rushed  away. 

'  All  letters  should  be  given  to  me,'  he  growled  as  he 
turned  away  to  argue  with  Miss  Thomas,  who  had  just 
arrived.  In  a  few  minutes  the  call-boy  came  back. 

'  Will  you  please  step  this  way,'  he  said  to  Kate. 

'No,  you  shan't,'  cried  the  hallkeeper;  'if  you  try 
any  nonsense  with  me  I  shall  send  round  for  a  police- 
man.' 

Kate  started  back  frightened,  thinking  these  words 
were  addressed  to  her,  but  a  glance  showed  her  that  she 
was  mistaken. 

'  Oh!  how  dare  you  talk  to  me  like  that?  You're  an 
unsophisticated  beast!'  cried  Miss  Thomas. 

'  Pass  under  my  arm,  ma'am,'  said  the  hallkeeper;  '  I 
don't  want  this  one  to  get  through.'  And  amid  a  storm 
of  violent  words  and  the  strains  of  distant  music  Kate 
went  up  a  narrow  staircase  that  creaked  under  the 
weight  of  a  group  of  girls  in  strange  dresses.  When 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  441 

she  got  past  them  she  saw  Dick  at  the  door  of  his  room 
waiting  for  her.  The  table  was  covered  with  letters, 
the  walls  with  bills  announcing,  '  a  great  success/ 

He  took  her  hand  and  placed  her  in  a  chair,  and  at 
first  it  seemed  doubtful  who  would  break  an  awkward 
and  irritating  silence.  At  last  Dick  said: 

'  I'm  sorry  to  hear,  Kate,  that  you've  been  ill;  you're 
looking  well  now.' 

'  Yes,  I'm  better  now/  she  replied  drearily;  '  but  per- 
haps if  I'd  died  it  would  have  been  as  well,  for  you  can 
never  love  me  again.' 

'  You  know,  my  dear,'  he  said,  equivocating,  '  that  we 
didn't  get  on  well  together.' 

'  Oh,  Dick !  I  know  it.  You  were  very  good  to  me, 
and  I  made  your  life  wretched  on  account  of  my  jeal- 
ousy; but  I  couldn't  help  it,  for  I  loved  you  better  than 
a  woman  ever  loved  a  man.  I  cannot  tell  you,  I  cannot 
find  words  to  express  how  much  I  love  you;  you're 
everything  to  me.  I  lived  for  your  love;  I'm  dying  of 
it.  Yes,  Dick,  I'm  dying  for  love  of  you;  I  feel  it  here; 
it  devours  me  like  a  fire,  and  what  is  so  strange  is,  that 
nothing  seems  real  to  me  except  you.  I  never  think  of 
anything  but  of  things  that  concern  you.  Anything 
that  ever  belonged  to  you  I  treasure  up  as  a  relic.  You 
know  the  chaplet  of  pearls  I  used  to  wear  when  we 
played  The  Lover's  Knot.  Well,  I  have  them  still,  al- 
though all  else  has  gone  from  me.  The  string  was 
broken  once  or  twice,  and  some  of  the  pearls  were  lost, 
but  I  threaded  them  again,  and  it  still  goes  round  my 
neck.  I  was  looking  at  them  the  other  day,  and  it  made 
me  very  sad,  for  it  made  me  think  of  the  happy  days — 
ah,  the  very  happy  days ! — we  have  had  together  before 

I  took  to .  But  I  won't  speak  of  that.  I've  cured 

myself.  Yes,  I  assure  you,  Dick,  I've  cured  myself; 
and  it  is  for  that  I've  come  to  talk  to  you.  Were 


442  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

I  not  sure  that  I  would  never  touch  brandy  again  I 
would  not  ask  you  to  take  me  back,  but  I'd  sooner  die 
than  do  what  I  have  done,  for  I  know  that  I  never  will. 
Can  you — will  you — my  own  darling  Dick,  give  me  an- 
other trial?' 

The  victory  hung  in  the  balance,  but  at  that  moment 
a  superb  girl,  in  all  the  splendour  of  long  green  tights, 
and  resplendent  with  breastplate  and  spear,  flung  open 
the  door. 

'  Look  here,  Dick,'  she  began,  but  seeing  Kate,  she 
stopped  short,  and  stammered  out  an  apology. 

'  I  shall  be  down  on  the  stage  in  a  minute,  dear,'  he 
said,  rising  from  his  chair.  The  door  was  shut,  and 
they  were  again  alone;  but  Kate  felt  that  chance  had 
gone  against  her.  The  interruption  had,  with  a  sudden 
shock,  killed  the  emotions  she  had  succeeded  in  awaken- 
ing, and  had  supplied  Dick  with  an  answer  that  would 
lead  him,  by  a  way  after  his  own  heart,  straight  out  of 
his  difficulty. 

'  My  dear,'  he  said,  rising  from  his  chair,  '  I'm  glad 
you've  given  up  the — you  know  what — for  between  you 
and  me,  that  was  the  cause  of  all  our  trouble;  but,  can- 
didly speaking,  I  don't  think  it  would  be  advisable  for 
us  to  live  together,  at  least  for  the  present,  and  I'll  tell 
you  why.  I  know  that  you  love  me  very  much,  but,  as 
you  said  yourself  just  now,  it's  your  jealousy  and  the 
drink  together  that  excites  you,  and  leads  up  to  those 
terrible  rows.  Now,  the  best  plan  would  be  for  us  to 
live  apart,  let  us  say  for  six  months  or  so,  until  you've 
entirely  got  over  your  little  weakness,  you  know;  and 
then — why,  then  we'll  be  as  happy  as  we  used  to  be  at 
Blackpool  in  the  dear  old  times  long  ago.' 

'  Oh,  Dick !  don't  say  that  I  must  wait  six  months ; 
I  might  be  dead  before  then.  But  you're  not  speaking 
the  truth  to  me.  You  were  just  going  to  say  that  I 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  443 

might  come  back  to  you  when  the  horrid  girl  came  in. 
I  know.  Yes,  I  believe  there's  something  between  you.' 

'  Now,  Kate,  remember  your  promise  not  to  kick  up 
a  row.  I  consented  to  see  you  because  you  said  you 
wouldn't  be  violent.  Here's  your  letter.' 

'  I'm  not  going  to  be  violent,  Dick;  but  six  months 
seems  such  a  long  time.' 

'  It  won't  be  as  long  passing  as  you  think.  And  now 
I  must  run  away;  they're  waiting  for  me  on  the  stage. 
Have  you  seen  the  piece?  Would  you  like  to  go  in 
front?' 

'  No ;  not  to-night,  Dick ;  I  feel  too  sad.  But  won't 
you  kiss  me  before  I  go  ?  ' 

Dick  bent  his  face  and  kissed  her;  but  there  was  a 
chill  in  the  kiss  that  went  to  her  heart,  and  she  felt 
that  his  lips  would  never  touch  hers  again.  But  she  had 
no  protest  to  make,  and  almost  in  silence  she  allowed 
herself  to  be  shown  out  of  the  theatre.  When  she  got 
into  the  mist  she  shivered  a  little,  and  drew  her  thin 
shawl  tighter  about  her  thin  shoulders,  and,  with  one 
of  the  choruses  still  ringing  in  her  ears,  she  walked  in 
the  direction  of  the  Strand.  Somehow  her  sorrow  did 
not  seem  too  great  for  her  to  bear.  The  interview  had 
passed  neither  as  badly  nor  as  well  as  had  been  ex- 
pected, and  thinking  of  the  six  months  of  probation  that 
lay  before  her,  but  without  being  in  the  least  able  to 
realize  their  meaning,  she  walked  dreaming  through  the 
sloppy,  fog-smelling  streets.  The  lamps  were  now  but 
like  furred  patches  of  yellow  laid  on  a  dead  grey  back- 
ground, and  a  mud-bespattered  crowd  rolled  in  and  out 
of  the  darkness.  The  roofs  overhead  were  engulfed 
in  the  soot-coloured  sky  that  seemed  to  be  descending  on 
the  heads  of  the  passengers.  Men  passed  carrying  par- 
cels ;  the  white  necktie  of  a  theatre-goer  was  caught  sight 
of.  From  Lambeth,  from  Islington,  from  Pimlico,  from 


444  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

all  the  dark  corners  where  it  had  been  lurking  in  the  day- 
time, prostitution  at  the  fading  of  the  light,  had  de- 
scended on  the  town — portly  matrons,  very  respectable 
in  brown  silk  dresses  and  veils,  stood  in  the  corners  of 
alleys  and  dingy  courts,  scorned  by  the  younger  gener- 
ation; young  girls  of  fifteen  and  sixteen  going  by  in 
couples  with  wisps  of  dyed  hair  hanging  about  their 
shoulders,  advertisements  of  their  age;  the  elder  taking 
the  responsibility  of  choosing;  Germans  in  long  ulsters 
trafficked  in  guttural  intonations;  policemen  on  their 
beats  could  have  looked  less  concerned.  The  English 
hung  round  the  public-houses,  enviously  watching  the 
arched  insteps  of  the  French  women  tripping  by. 
Smiles  there  were  plenty,  but  the  fog  was  so  thick  that 
even  the  Parisians  lost  their  native  levity  and  wished 
themselves  back  in  Paris. 

At  the  crossing  of  Wellington  Street  she  stumbled 
against  a  small  man  who  leaned  against  a  doorway 
coughing  violently.  They  stared  at  each  other  in  pro- 
found astonishment,  and  then  Kate  said  in  a  pained  and 
broken  voice: 

'Oh,  Ralph!  is  it  you?' 

'  Yes,  indeed  it  is.  But  to  think  of  meeting  you  here 
in  London ! ' 

They  had,  for  the  second,  in  a  sort  of  way,  forgotten 
that  they  had  once  been  man  and  wife,  and  after  a  pause 
Kate  said: 

'  But  that's  just  what  I  was  thinking.  What  are  you 
doing  in  London  ?  ' 

Ralph  was  about  to  answer  when  he  was  cut  short  by 
a  fit  of  coughing.  His  head  sank  into  his  chest, 
and  his  little  body  was  shaken  until  it  seemed  as  if 
it  were  going  to  break  to  pieces  like  a  bundle  of  sticks. 
Kate  looked  at  him  pityingly,  and  passing  unconsciously 


A   MUMMER'S    WIFE  445 

over  the  dividing  years,  just  as  she  might  have  done 
when  they  kept  shop  together  in  Hanley,  she  said: 

'  Oh !  you  know  you  shouldn't  stop  out  in  such  weather 
as  this:  you'll  be  breathless  to-morrow.' 

'Oh,  no,  I  shan't;  I've  got  a  new  remedy.     But  I've 
lost  my  way;  that's  the  reason  why  I'm  so  late.' 
'  Perhaps  I  can  tell  you.    Where  are  you  staying?  ' 
'  In  an  hotel  in  Bedford  Street,  near  Covent  Garden.' 
'  Well,  then,  this  is  your  way;  you've  come  too  far.' 
And    passing    again    into    the    jostling    crowd    they 
walked  on  in  silence  side  by  side.     A  slanting  cloud 
of  fog  had  drifted  from  the  river  down  into  the  street, 
creating  a  shivering  and  terrifying  darkness.     The  cabs 
moved  at  walking  pace,  the  huge  omnibuses  stopped  be- 
lated, and  their  advertisements  could  not  be  read  even 
when  a  block  occurred  close  under  a  gas-lamp.    The  jew- 
ellers' windows  emitted  the  most  light;  but  even  gold 
and  silver  wares  seemed  to   have  become  tarnished   in 
the  sickening  atmosphere.     Then  the  smell  from  fish- 
mongers' shops  grew  more  sour  as  the  assistant  piled  up 
the  lobsters  and  flooded  the  marbles  preparatory  to  clos- 
ing; and,  just  within  the  circle  of  vision,  inhaling  the 
greasy   fragrance  of  soup,  a  woman  in   a  blue  bonnet 
loitered  near  a  grating. 

'  This  is  Bedford  Street,  I  think/  said  Kate,  '  but  it's 
so  dark  that  it's  impossible  to  see.' 

'  I  suppose  you  know  London  well  ?  '  replied  Ralph 
somewhat  pointedly. 

'  Pretty  well,  I've  been  here  now  for  some  time.' 
For  the  last  three  or  four  minutes  not  a  word  had  been 
spoken.  Kate  was  surprised  that  Ralph  was  not  angry 
with  her;  she  wanted  to  speak  to  him  of  old  times,  but 
it  was  hard  to  break  the  ice  of  intervening  years.  At 
last,  as  they  stopped  before  the  door  of  a  small  family 
hotel,  he  said: 


446  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

'  It's  now  something  like  four  years  since  we  parted, 
ain't  it?  ' 

The  question  startled  her,  and  she  answered  nerv- 
ously and  hurriedly: 

'  I  suppose  it  is,  but  I'd  better  wish  you  good-bye  now 
— you're  safe  at  home.' 

'  Oh,  no !  come  in ;  you  look  so  very  tired,  a  glass 
of  wine  will  do  you  good.  Besides,  what  harm?  Wasn't 
I  your  husband  once?  ' 

'  Oh,  Ralph !  how  can  you  ?  ' 

'  Why,  there's  no  reason  why  I  shouldn't  hear  how 
you've  been  getting  on.  We're  just  like  strangers,  so 
many  things  have  occurred;  I've  married  since — but  per- 
haps you  didn't  hear  of  it?' 

'  Married  !     Who  did  you  marry  ?  ' 

'  Well !     I  married  your  assistant,  Render.' 

'  What,  Hender  your  wife  ?  '  said  Kate,  with  an  into- 
nation of  voice  that  was  full  of  pain.  A  dagger  thrust 
suddenly  through  her  side  as  she  went  up  the  stair- 
case could  not  have  wounded  her  more  cruelly  than  the 
news  that  the  woman  who  had  been  her  assistant  now 
owned  the  house  that  once  was  hers.  The  story  of 
the  dog  in  the  manger  is  as  old  as  the  world. 

Through  the  windows  of  the  little  public  sitting-room 
nothing  was  visible;  everything  was  shrouded  in  the 
yellow  curtain  of  fog.  A  commercial  traveller  had 
drawn  off  his  boots,  and  was  warming  his  slippered  feet 
by  the  fire. 

'  Dreadful  weather,  sir,'  said  the  man.  '  I'm  afraid  it 
won't  do  your  cough  much  good.  Will  you  come  near 
the  fire?' 

'  Thank  you,'  said  Ralph. 

Kate  mechanically  drew  forward  a  chair.  It  would 
be  impossible  for  them  to  say  a  word,  for  the  traveller 
was  evidently  inclined  to  be  garrulous,  and  both  won- 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  447 

dered  what  they  should  do ;  but  at  that  moment  the  cham- 
bermaid came  to  announce  that  the  gentleman's  room 
was  ready.  He  took  up  his  boots  and  retired,  leaving 
the  two,  who  had  once  been  husband  and  wife,  alone; 
and  yet  it  seemed  as  difficult  as  ever  to  speak  of  what 
was  uppermost  in  their  minds.  Kate  helped  Ralph  off 
with  his  great-coat,  and  she  noticed  that  he  looked 
thinner  and  paler.  The  servant  brought  up  two  glasses 
of  grog,  and  when  Kate  had  taken  off  her  bonnet,  she 
said: 

'  Do  you  think  I'm  much  altered?  ' 

'  Well,  since  you  ask  me,  Kate,  I  must  say  I  don't 
think  you're  looking  very  well.  You're  thinner  than  you 
used  to  be,  and  you've  lost  a  good  deal  of  your  hair.' 

'  I've  only  just  recovered  from  a  bad  illness,'  she  said, 
sighing,  and  as  she  raised  the  glass  to  her  lips  the  gas- 
light defined  the  whole  contour  of  her  head.  The  thick 
hair  that  used  to  encircle  her  pale  prominent  temples  like 
rich  velvet,  looked  now  like  a  black  silk  band  frayed  and 
whitened  at  the  seam. 

'  But  what  have  you  been  doing?  Have  things  gone 
pretty  well  with  you  ?  '  said  Ralph,  whose  breath  came 
from  him  in  a  thin  but  continuous  whistle.  '  What  hap- 
pened when  I  got  my  decree  of  divorce  ? ' 

'  Nothing  particular  for  a  while,  but  afterwards  we 
were  married.' 

'  Oh !  *  said  Ralph,  '  so  he  married  you,  did  he  ?  Well, 
I  shouldn't  have  expected  it  of  him.  So  we're  both  mar- 
ried. Isn't  it  odd?  And  meeting,  too,  in  this  way.' 

'  Yes,  many  things  have  happened  since  then.  I've 
been  on  the  stage — travelling  all  over  England.' 

'What!  you  on  the  stage,  Kate?  '  said  Ralph,  lifting 

his  head  from  his  hand.  '  Oh  lord !  oh  lord !  how 

Ha!  ha!  oh!  but  I  mustn't  la-ugh;  I  won't  be  able  to 
breathe.' 


448  A   MUMMER'S   WIFE 

Kate  turned  to  him  almost  angrily,  and  the  ghost  of 
the  prima  donna  awakening  in  her,  she  said: 

'  I  don't  see  what  there  is  to  laugh  at.  I've  played 
all  the  leading  parts,  and  in  all  the  principal  towns  in 
England — Liverpool,  Manchester,  Leeds.  The  Newcas- 
tle Chronicle  said  my  Serpolette  was  the  best  they'd 
seen.' 

Ralph  looked  bewildered,  like  a  man  blinded  for  a  mo- 
ment by  a  sudden  flash  of  lightning.  He  could  not  at 
once  realize  that  this  woman,  who  had  been  his  wife, 
who  had  washed  and  scrubbed  in  his  little  home  in  Han- 
ley,  was  now  one  of  those  luminous  women  who,  in  clear 
skirts  and  pink  stockings,  wander  singing  beautiful  songs, 
amid  illimitable  forests  and  unscalable  mountains.  For 
a  moment  he  regretted  he  had  married  Miss  Hender. 

'  But  I  don't  think  I  shall  ever  act  again.' 

'  How's  that  ? '  he  said  with  an  intonation  of  disap- 
pointment in  his  voice. 

'  I  don't  know,'  said  Kate.  'I'm  not  living  with  my 
husband  now,  and  I  haven't  the  courage  to  look  out  for 
an  engagement  myself.' 

Ralph  stared  at  her  vaguely.  '  Look  out  for  an  en- 
gagement? '  he  repeated  to  himself;  it  seemed  to  him 
that  he  must  be  dreaming. 

'  Aren't  you  happy  with  him  ?  Doesn't  he  treat  you 
well  ?  '  said  Ralph,  dropping  perforce  from  his  dream 
back  into  reality. 

'  Oh,  yes,  he  has  always  been  very  good  to  me.  I 
can't  say  how  it  was,  but  somehow  after  a  time  we  didn't 
get  on.  I  dare  say  it  was  my  fault.  But  how  do  you 
get  on  with  Miss  Hender  ? '  said  Kate,  partly  from 
curiosity,  half  from  a  wish  to  change  the  conversation. 

'  Oh,  pretty  well,'  said  Ralph,  with  something  that 
sounded,  in  spite  of  his  wheezing,  like  a  sigh. 

'  How  does  she  manage  the  dressmaking?     She  was 


A    MUMMER'S   WIFE  449 

always  a  good  workwoman,  but  she  never  had  much 
taste,  and  I  should  fancy  wouldn't  be  able  to  do  much  if 
left  entirely  to  herself.' 

'  That's  just  what  occurred.  It's  curious  you  should 
have  guessed  so  correctly.  The  business  has  all  gone 
to  the  dogs,  and  since  mother's  death  we've  turned  the 
house  into  a  lodging-house.' 

'  And  is  mother  dead  ?  '  cried  Kate,  clasping  her  hands. 
'  What  must  she  have  thought  of  me  ?  ' 

Ralph  did  not  answer,  but  after  a  long  silence  he 
said: 

'  It's  a  pity,  ain't  it,  that  we  didn't  pull  it  off  better 
together  ?  ' 

Kate  raised  her  head  and  looked  at  him  quickly.  Her 
look  was  full  of  gratitude. 

'  Yes,'  she  said,  '  I  behaved  very  badly  towards  you, 
but  I  believe  I've  been  punished  for  it/ 

'  You  told  me  that  he  married  you  and  treated  you 
very  well/ 

'  Oh ! '  she  said,  bursting  into  tears,  '  don't  ask  me, 
it's  too  long  a  story;  I'll  tell  you  another  time,  but  not 
now/ 

It  appeared  to  Kate  that  her  heart  was  on  fire  and 
that  she  must  die  of  grief.  '  Was  this  life  ?  '  she  asked 
herself.  Oh,  to  be  at  rest  and  out  of  the  way  for  ever ! 
Ralph,  too,  seemed  deeply  affected;  after  a  pause  he 
said: 

'  I  don't  know  how  it  was,  or  why,  but  now  I  come  to 
think  of  it  I  remember  that  I  used  to  be  cross  with  you/ 
'  It  was  the  asthma  that  made  you  cross,  and  well  it 
might;'  and  she  asked  him  if  he  still  suffered  from 
asthma,  and  he  answered,  '  At  times,  yes/  '  But  the 
cigarettes,'  she  said,  '  used  to  relieve  you ;  do  you  still 
smoke  them  ?  ' 

'  Yes,  and  sometimes  they  relieve  me  and  sometimes 


450  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

they  don't.'  A  long  silence  separated  them,  and  break- 
ing it  suddenly  he  said : 

'  There  were  faults  on  both  sides.  On  every  side/  he 
added,  '  for  I  don't  exempt  mother  from  blame  either. 
She  was  always  too  hard  upon  you.  Now  I  should  never 
have  minded  your  going  to  the  theatre  and  amusing 
yourself.  I  shouldn't  have  minded  your  being  an  ac- 
tress, and  I  should  have  gone  to  fetch  you  home  every 
evening.' 

Kate  smiled  through  her  misery,  and  he  continued,  fol- 
lowing his  idea  to  the  end. 

'  It  wouldn't  have  interfered  with  the  business  if  you 
had  been;  on  the  contrary,  it  would  have  brought  us  a 
connection,  and  I  might  have  had  up  those  plate-glass 
windows,  and  taken  in  the  fruiterer's  shop/ 

Ralph  stopped.  The  roar  of  London  had  sunk  out  of 
hearing  in  the  yellow  depths  of  the  fog,  and  for  some 
minutes  nothing  was  heard  but  the  short  ticking  of  the 
clock.  It  was  a  melancholy  pleasure  to  dream  what 
might  have  been  had  things  only  taken  a  different  turn, 
and  like  children  making  mud-pies  it  amused  them  to 
rebuild  the  little  fabric  of  their  lives;  whilst  one  recon- 
structed his  vision  of  broken  glass,  the  other  lamented 
over  the  ruins  of  penny  journal  sentiment.  Then  awak- 
ening by  fits  and  starts,  each  confided  in  the  other. 
Ralph  told  Kate  how  Mrs.  Ede  had  spoken  of  her  when 
her  flight  had  been  discovered;  Kate  tried  to  explain 
that  she  was  not  as  much  to  blame  as  might  be  imagined. 
Ralph's  curiosity  constantly  got  the  better  of  him,  and 
he  couldn't  but  ask  her  to  tell  him  something  about 
her  stage  experience.  One  thing  led  to  another,  and 
before  twelve  o'clock  it  surprised  her  to  think  she  had 
told  him  so  much. 

The  conversation  was  carried  on  in  brief  and  broken 
phrases.  The  man  and  the  woman  sat  close  together 


A    MUMMER'S    WIFE  451 

shivering  over  the  fire.  There  were  no  curtains  to 
the  windows,  and  the  fog  had  crept  through  the  sashes 
into  the  room.  Kate  coughed  from  time  to  time — a  sharp, 
hacking  cough — and  Ralph's  wheezing  grew  thicker  in 
sound. 

'  I'm  a-fraid  I  shall  have  a  b-bad  night,  this  dre-ad- 
ful  weather/ 

'  I  should  like  to  stop  to  nurse  you ;  but  I  must  be 
getting  home.' 

'  You  surely  won't  think  of  going  out  such  a  night  as 
this;  you'll  never  find  your  way  home.' 

'  Yes,  yes,  I  shall ;  it  wouldn't  do  for  me  to  remain 
here.' 

They  who  had  once  been  husband  and  wife  looked  at 
each  other,  and  both  smiled  painfully. 

'  Ve-ry  well,  I'll  see  you  do-wnstairs.' 

'  Oh,  no !  you  mustn't,  you'll  kill  yourself ! ' 

Ralph,  however,  insisted.  They  stood  on  the  door- 
step for  a  moment  together,  suffocating  in  a  sulphur- 
hued  atmosphere. 

'  You'll  come  a-nd  and  see  me  again  to-to-morrow, 
won't  you  ? ' 

'  Yes,  yes ! '  cried  Kate ;  '  to-morrow !  to-morrow ! '  and 
she  disappeared  in  the  darkness. 


XXX 


BUT  on  the  morrow  she  could  not  leave  her  room,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  week  the  news  at  the  Bedford  Hotel 
was  that  Mr.  Ede  had  gone  away  the  day  before  with- 
out leaving  any  message. 

The  porter  who  informed  her  of  his  departure 
looked  her  over  curiously,  setting  her  thinking  that  he 
thought  Mr.  Ede  had  done  well  to  get  clear  of  the  likes 
of  her.  She  had  tried  to  make  herself  look  tidy  and 
thought  she  had  succeeded,  but  tidy  or  untidy,  it  was 
all  the  same,  nothing  mattered  now;  she  was  done  for. 
No  doubt  the  porter  was  right;  Ralph  had  gone  away 
to  escape  from  her,  which  was  just  as  well,  for  what 
more  had  they  to  say  to  each  other;  hadn't  he  married 
Render?  And  passing  in  front  of  a  shop  window  she 
caught  sight  of  herself  in  a  looking-glass.  '  Not  up  to 
much,'  she  said,  and  passed  on  into  the  Strand  mumbling 
her  misfortunes  and  causing  the  passers-by  to  look  after 
her.  She  had  not  pinned  up  her  skirt  safely;  a  foot  of 
it  dragged  over  the  pavement,  and  hearing  jeering  voices 
behind  her  she  went  into  a  public-house  to  ask  for  a  pin. 
The  barmaid  obliged  her  with  one,  and  while  arranging 
her  skirt  she  heard  a  man  say :  '  Well,  they  that  talk 
of  the  evil  of  drinking  know  very  little  of  what  they  are 
talking  about.  Drink  has  saved  as  many  men  as  it  has 
killed.'  Kate's  heart  warmed  to  the  man,  for  she  knew 

452 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  453 

a  glass  had  often  saved  her  from  making  away  with 
herself,  but  never  had  she  felt  more  like  the  river  in 
her  life  than  she  did  that  morning.  Threepenny- worth 
would  be  enough,  she  could  not  afford  more,  Dick  was 
only  allowing  her  two  pounds  a  week  and  a  woman  had 
to  look  after  the  thirty-nine  shillings  very  strictly  to 
find  the  fortieth  in  her  pocket  before  her  next  week's 
money  was  due.  She  felt  better  after  having  her  glass; 
her  thoughts  were  no  longer  on  the  river  lying  at  the 
end  of  Wellington  Street,  but  on  the  passengers  in  the 
Strand,  the  swaggering  mummers,  male  and  female;  the 
men  with  lordly  airs  and  billycock  hats ;  the  women  with 
yellow  hair  and  unholy  looks  upon  their  faces.  There 
were  groups  of  men  and  women  round  a  theatrical  agent's 
place  of  business,  all  sorts  of  people  coming  and  going; 
lawyers  from  the  Temple,  journalists  on  their  way  to 
Fleet  Street;  prostitutes  of  all  kinds  and  all  sorts,  young 
and  old,  fat  and  thin,  of  all  nationalities,  French,  Bel- 
gian, and  German,  went  by  in  couples,  in  rows,  their 
eyes  flaming  invitations.  Children  with  orange-coloured 
hair  sold  matches  and  were  followed  down  suspicious 
alleys;  a  strange  hurried  life,  full  of  complexity,  had  be- 
gun in  the  twilight  before  the  lamplighters  went  by. 
Girls  and  boys  scrambled  after  each  other  quarrelling 
and  selling  newspapers.  The  spectacle  helped  the  time 
away  between  four  o'clock  and  seven.  At  seven  she 
turned  into  some  eating-house  and  dined  for  a  shilling, 
and  afterwards  there  was  nothing  to  do  than  wander  in 
the  Strand.  Some  of  the  women  who  preferred  to  pick 
up  a  living  by  the  sale  of  their  lips  rather  than  by  stand- 
ing for  hours  over  a  stinking  wash-tub  were  very  often 
kindly  human  beings,  and  there  was  nobody  else  except 
these  street-walkers  with  whom  she  could  exchange  a 
few  words  and  invite  into  a  drinking-shop  for  a  glass. 
Over  the  counter  she  related  her  successes  as  Clairette 


454 


in  Madame  Angot  and  Serpolette  in  Les  Cloches  de 
Corneville,  and  if  an  incredulous  look  came  into  the  faces 
of  her  guests  she  sang  to  them  the  little  ditties,  proving 
by  her  knowledge  of  them  that  all  she  told  them  was 
true.  From  the  drinking-shop  they  passed  out  in  groups, 
and  these  women  took  Kate  to  their  eating-houses,  and 
she  listened  to  their  stories,  and  when  at  the  end  of  the 
week  she  had  spent  all  her  money  sometimes  these  women 
lent  her  shillings  and  half-crowns,  and  when  she  could 
not  return  the  money  she  had  borrowed  they  asked  her: 
'  why  don't  you  do  as  we  do  ?  ' 

Her  pretty  face  of  former  days  was  almost  gone  by 
this  time,  but  traces  of  it  still  remained.  '  If  you 
would  only  dress  yourself  a  little  more  becomingly  and 
come  along  with  us,  you  would  be  able  to  make  two 
ends  meet.  With  what  you  get  from  your  husband  you 
would  be  better  off  than  any  of  us.'  But  she  could  not 
be  persuaded,  and  as  time  moved  on,  and  drunkenness 
became  more  inveterate,  the  belief  that  she  was  not  utterly 
lost  unless  she  was  unfaithful  to  Dick  took  possession 
of  her,  and  she  clung  to  it  with  an  almost  desperate  in- 
sistency, saying  to  her  friends,  '  If  I  were  to  do  that 
I  should  go  down  to  the  river  and  drown  myself.'  She 
used  to  hear  laughter  when  she  said  these  words,  and 
the  replies  were  that  every  woman  had  said  the  same 
thing:  'but  we  all  come  to  it  sooner  or  later.'  'Not 
me,  not  me ! '  she  replied,  tottering  out  of  the  public- 
house.  But  one  night,  awakening  in  the  dusk  between 
daylight  and  dark,  she  remembered  that  something  had 
befallen  her  that  had  never  befallen  her  before.  She 
was  not  sure,  it  may  have  been  that  she  had  dreamed  it. 
All  the  same,  she  could  not  rid  herself  of  the  idea  that 
last  night  in  the  public-house  near  Charing  Cross  a  man 
had  come  in  and  said  he  would  pay  for  the  drinks,  and 
that  afterwards  she  had  gone  to  one  of  the  hotels 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  455 

in  Villiers  Street.  If  she  hadn't  why  did  she  think  of 
Villiers  Street?  She  rarely  went  down  that  Street.  Yet 
she  was  haunted  by  a  memory,  a  hateful  memory  that 
had  kept  her  awake,  and  had  caused  her  to  moan  and 
to  cry  for  hours,  till  at  last  sleep  fell  upon  her.  On 
waking  her  first  thought  was  to  inquire  from  the  women, 
and  she  walked  up  and  down  the  Strand  seeking  them  till 
nightfall.  But  they  could  tell  her  nothing  of  what  had 
happened  after  she  left  them.  '  Dry  your  eyes,  Kate,' 
they  said.  '  What  matter  ?  Your  husband  deserted  you ; 
aren't  you  free  to  live  with  whom  you  please  ?  ' 

Kate  felt  that  all  they  said  was  true  enough,  but  she 
prayed  that  the  memory  of  the  hotel  bedroom  that  had 
risen  up  in  her  mind  was  the  memory  of  a  dream,  and 
not  of  something  that  had  befallen  her  in  her  waking 
senses.  It  were  bad  enough  that  she  should  have 
dreamed  such  a  thing,  and  on  returning  home  she  fell 
on  her  knees  and  prayed  that  what  she  feared  had  been, 
had  not  been ;  and  she  rose  from  her  knees,  her  eyes  full 
of  tears,  and  a  sort  of  leaden  despair  in  her  heart  that 
she  felt  would  never  pass  away. 

As  the  days  went  by  her  mind  became  denser,  she  fell 
into  obtusities  out  of  which  she  found  it  difficult  to 
rouse  herself.  Even  her  violent  temper  seemed  to  leave 
her,  and  miserable  and  hopeless  she  rolled  from  one 
lodging  to  another,  drinking  heavily,  bringing  the  drink 
back  with  her  and  drinking  in  her  bed  until  her  hand 
was  too  unsteady  to  pour  out  another  glass  of  whisky. 
She  drank  whisky,  brandy,  gin,  and  if  she  couldn't  get 
these,  any  other  spirit  would  serve  her  purpose,  even 
methylated  spirit. 

Her  bed-curtains  were  taken  away  by  the  landlady 

lest  Kate  should  set  them  on  fire.     The  landlady  lit  the 

gas  at  nightfall  and  turned  it  out  before  she  went  to  bed 

— '  Only  in  that  way/  she  said  to  herself,  '  can  we  be 

30 


456  A    MUMMER'S   WIFE 

sure  that  that  woman  won't  burn  us  all  to  death  in  our 
beds.  Once  a  room  is  let,'  she  continued,  '  it's  hard  to 
turn  a  sick  woman  out,  especially  if  there's  no  excuse, 
and  in  this  case  there's  none.  For  you  see,  Mrs.  Len- 
nox is  getting  two  pounds  a  week  from  her  husband.' 
Mr.  Locker,  Mrs.  Rawson's  evening  friend,  agreed  with 
her;  and  he  spoke  of  the  recompense  she  would  be  en- 
titled to  from  Mr.  Lennox  in  the  event  of  Mrs.  Len- 
nox's death ;  '  for,  of  course,  every  trouble  and  annoy- 
ance should  be  recompensed.'  She  agreed  with  him;  but 
her  eyes  suddenly  softening,  she  said :  '  I  haven't  seen  her 
since  this  morning  when  I  took  her  up  a  cup  of  tea. 
She  may  like  a  bit  of  dinner.  We're  having  some  rabbit 
for  supper,  I'll  ask  her  if  she'd  like  a  piece.' 

A  few  minutes  later  she  returned  saying  she  was  afraid 
Mrs.  Lennox  was  dying,  and  that  it  might  be  as  well 
to  send  to  the  hospital.  Locker  answered  that  perhaps 
it  would  be  just  as  well,  but  on  second  thoughts  he  sug- 
gested that  the  husband  should  be  communicated  with. 

*  It  isn't  far  to  the  Opera  Comique,'  Mrs.  Rawson  an- 
swered, '  I'll  just  put  on  my  hat  and  jacket  and  go  round 
there/ 

'  It'll  be  the  best  way  to  escape  responsibility,'  Locker 
said  on  the  doorstep ;  but  without  answering  she  went  up 
the  Strand,  passing  over  to  the  other  side  when  she  came 
in  sight  of  the  Globe  Theatre. 

'  Where's  the  stage  entrance  of  the  Opera  Comique  ?  ' 
she  asked  at  the  bookstall  at  the  corner  of  Holliwell 
Street,  and  was  told  that  she  would  find  the  stage  en- 
trance in  Wych  Street,  about  half-way  down  the  street. 
4  The  stage-doors  of  the  Globe  and  the  Opera  Comique 
are  side  by  side,'  was  cried  after  her.  '  What  does  he 
mean  by  half-way  down  the  street,'  she  muttered ;  '  he 
meant  a  quarter  down,'  and  she  addressed  herself  to  the 
door-keeper,  who  answered  surlily  that  Mr.  Lennox  was 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  457 

particularly  engaged  at  that  moment,  but  at  Mrs.  Raw- 
son's  words — '  I  believe  his  wife  is  dying,' — he  agreed 
to  send  up  a  message  as  soon  as  he  could  get  hold  of 
somebody  to  take  it.  At  last  somebody's  dresser  was 
stopped  as  he  was  about  to  pass  through  the  swing 
door;  he  agreed  to  take  the  message,  and  a  few  minutes 
after  Mrs.  Rawson  was  conducted  up  several  little  stair- 
cases and  down  some  passages  to  find  herself  eventually 
in  a  small  room  in  which  there  were  three  people,  one 
a  pleasant-faced  man,  so  affable  and  kind  that  Mrs. 
Rawson  thought  she  could  have  got  on  with  him  very 
well  if  she  had  had  a  chance.  By  him  stood  a  tall 
imperious  lady  who  rustled  a  voluminous  skirt — a  per- 
son of  importance,  Mrs.  Rawson  judged  her  to  be  from 
the  deference  with  which  a  little  thread-paper-man  lis- 
tened to  her — the  costumier,  she  learnt  from  scraps  of 
conversation. 

'  I'm  sorry/  Mr.  Lennox  said.  '  All  you  tell  me  is 
very  sad.  But  I'm  afraid  I  can  do  nothing.' 

'  That's  what  I  think  myself/  Mrs.  Rawson  an- 
swered. '  I'm  afraid  there's  nothing  to  be  done,  but  I 
thought  I'd  better  come  and  tell  you.  You  see,  when 
I  went  up  with  some  beef-tea  she  looked  to  me  like  one 
that  hadn't  many  days  to  live.  I  may  be  mistaken,  of 
course.' 

'  She  should  have  a  nurse/  Mrs.  Forest  said. 

'  I  do  all  I  can  for  her,'  Mrs.  Rawson  murmured, 
'  but  you  see  with  three  children  to  lojpk  after  and  only 
one  maid,' — the  two  women  began  to  talk  together  and 
the  thread-paper-man  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity 
to  whisper  to  Dick  that  he  thought  he  could  manage  to 
do  the  flower-girls'  dresses  at  five  shillings  less. 

'  That  will  be  all  right,'  Dick  replied.  '  I  will  call 
round  in  the  morning,  Mr.  Shaffle.' 


458  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

Mrs.  Forest  held  out  her  jacket  to  Dick,  who  helped 
her  into  it. 

'  Where  are  you  going  .  .  .  shall  you  be  coming  back 
again?  '  he  asked. 

'  I'm  going  to  nurse  your  wife,  Dick/  she  said  pick- 
ing up  her  long  feather  boa,  '  and  isn't  all  that  is  hap- 
pening now  a  vindication  that  we  did  well  not  to  yield 
ourselves  to  ourselves? — for  had  we  done  so  our  regrets 
would  be  now  unanimous,  and  I  shouldn't  be  able  to  go 
to  her  with  clear  conscience.  .  .  .  She's  been  drinking 
heavily  again,  no  doubt,'  Mrs.  Forest  said  turning  to 
Mrs.  Rawson.  '  But  we  mustn't  judge  or  condemn  any- 
one, so  Jesus  hath  said.  I'll  go  with  you  now,  Mrs. 
Rawson,  and  you'll  perhaps  come  to-morrow,  Dick,  to 
see  her?  ' 

'  If  I  could  help  my  wife  I'd  go,  Laura,  but  as  I've 
often  told  you,  my  will  to  help  her  was  spent  long  ago; 
it  would  be  of  no  use.'  Laura's  eyes  lit  up  for  a  moment. 
'  But  if  she  asks  to  see  me  I'll  go.'  At  these  words  Mrs. 
Forest's  eyes  softened,  and  he  began  to  ask  himself  how 
much  truth  there  was  in  Laura's  resolve  to  go  and  at- 
tend upon  his  wife  in  what  was  no  doubt  a  last  agony. 
Seeing  and  hearing  her  put  into  his  head  remembrances 
of  an  actress,  he  could  not  remember  which.  Her  de- 
meanour was  as  lofty  as  any  and  her  speech  almost  rose 
into  blank  verse  at  times ;  and  he  began  to  think  that  she 
had  missed  her  vocation  in  life.  It  might  have  been  that 
she  was  destined  by  nature  for  the  stage.  '  She's  more 
mummer  than  myself  or  Kate/  he  said  to  himself,  and 
giving  an  ear  to  her  out-pourings,  he  recognized  in 
them  the  rudiments  of  the  grand  style:  and  he  admired 
her  transitions — her  voice  would  drop  and  she  seemed  to 
find  her  way  back  into  homely  speech.  Her  soul  seemed 
to  pass  back  and  forwards  easily,  and  Dick  did  not  feel 
sure  which  was  the  real  woman  and  which  the  fictitious. 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  459 

'  She.  doesn't  know  herself,'  he  said,  for  at  that  moment 
she  had  left  the  tripod  and  was  sitting  in  imagination 
at  the  bedside  in  attendance,  looking  from  the  patient  to 
the  clock,  administering  the  medicine  on  the  exact  time. 

When  Mrs.  Rawson  spoke  about  the  length  of  the 
day  and  night  she  answered  that  she  would  take  her  work 
with  her,  and  bade  Dick  not  to  be  anxious  about  the 
changes  he  had  asked  her  to  make  in  the  second  act. 
'  They  shall  be  made,'  she  said,  '  and  without  laying  my- 
self open  to  any  claim  for  demurrage/ 

'  Demurrage !'  Dick  exclaimed. 

'  She  shall  have  attendance,  but  a  soul  ready  to  depart 
shouldn't  be  detained  in  port  longer  than  is  necessary. 
And  Mrs.  Rawson  would  like  to  let  her  room  to  one  who 
has  not  received  her  sailing  orders,  as  is  the  case  with 
your  poor  wife,  Dick, — that  is  to  say  if  I  understand 
Mrs.  Rawson's  account  of  her  illness.' 

'  She's  not  here  for  long,'  Mrs.  Rawson  answered ; 
'  but  you  mustn't  think,  ma'am,  that  I'd  lay  any  under 
claim  for  the  trouble  she's  been  to  me,  only  what  is  fair. 
"  Fair  is  fair  all  the  world  over,"  has  been  my  maxim 
ever  since  I  started  letting  apartments.  But  perhaps, 
ma'am,  you'll  be  wanting  a  room  in  my  house.  If  you 
do  there's  the  drawing-room  floor  which  would  suit  you 
nicely.  But  you  can't  be  day  nurse  and  night  nurse 
yourself.'  Laura  answered  that  that  was  true,  and  talk- 
ing of  a  nurse  from  Charing  Cross  Hospital  they  went 
out  of  the  house  together.  At  the  end  of  the  street  Laura 
stopped  suddenly.  '  But  she  must  have  a  doctor/  she 
said,  and  waited  for  Mrs.  Rawson  to  recommend  one, 
and  Mrs.  Rawson  replied  that  the  doctor  that  attended 
her  and  her  children  was  out  of  town. 

'  We  will  ask  here,'  Laura  said,  and  called  to  the  cabby 
to  stop  at  the  apothecary's  and  the  questions  she  put  to 
the  man  behind  the  counter  were  so  pertinent  that  Mrs. 


460  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

Rawson  began  to  think  that  perhaps  she  had  misjudged 
Mrs.  Forest,  who  now  seemed  to  her  a  sensible  and  prac- 
tical woman.  They  jumped  again  into  a  cab,  and  after 
a  short  drive  returned  with  a  doctor,  Laura  relating  to 
him  in  the  cab  all  they  knew  about  his  patient. 

'  From  what  you  tell  me  it  seems  a  bad  case,'  he  said, 
and  turning  from  Laura  to  Mrs.  Rawson  he  asked  her  to 
describe  the  patient. 

'  When  I  took  up  the  beef-tea  I  found  her  that  bad 
that  I  felt  that  I'd  always  have  it  on  my  conscience  if  I 
didn't  let  her  husband  know  how  bad  his  wife  was ' 

'  I'm  afraid,  doctor,  that  she's  been  drinking  for 
years/  Laura  interjected. 

'  Well,  as  soon  as  I  see  Mrs.  Lennox  I  shall  be  able 
to  tell  you  if  there  is  in  my  opinion  any  reasonable  hope 
of  saving  her.  I  believe  you're  going  to  nurse  Mrs.  Len- 
nox through  this  illness  ? '  he  asked  Laura,  and  she  be- 
gan to  tell  him  how  she  had  always  known  of  this 
duty:  years  before  she  had  ever  met  Mr.  Lennox  it  had 
been  revealed  to  her — not  the  exact  time,  but  the  fact 
that  she  would  have  to  attend  upon  the  wife  of  some 
man  who  would  be  engaged  in  the  publication  of  some 
of  her  works.  '  You  see,  her  husband  is  producing  my 
play  Incarnation  at  the  Opera  Comique,  and  I've  brought 
some  of  my  work  with  me.'  She  opened  her  bag  and  laid 
on  the  table  the  manuscript  entitled  Sayings  of  the 
Sybil,  and  the  doctor  listened  at  first  not  satisfied  that 
she  was  altogether  the  nurse  into  whose  charge  he  would 
have  liked  to  have  given  Mrs.  Lennox;  but  feeling  that, 
if  he  were  to  press  the  necessity  of  a  nurse  on  Mrs.  For- 
est, she  might  leave,  he  refrained,  thinking  that  very 
often  people  who  talked  eccentrically  were  very  practi- 
cal. He  had  known  extravagant  speech  go  with  prac- 
tical nursing,  and  hoping  that  Mrs.  Forest  would  prove 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  461 

another  such  one,  he  laid  down  the  manuscript  on  the 
table. 

'  But  if  you  believe  that  we  live  hereafter,  why  should 
you  deny  pre-existence  ?  '  and  without  waiting  for  the 
doctor  to  answer,  Laura  averred  that  she  had  lived  at 
least  eight  times  already ;  '  witnessing  the  dread  contest 
of  death,  and  dying  for  the  cause  of  Pan,  and  the  Light- 
King,  and  Eros  the  immortal,  whose  I  am,'  she  said; 
'  and  once  again,  for  the  ninth  time,  I  live  and  watch  the 
contest — watch  with  joy  which  overcomes  fear,  with  love 
that  conquers  death/ 

'  Well,  I  hope  we  shall  be  able  to  conquer  death  in 
this  instance/  the  doctor  answered,  '  and  with  care  we 
may  save  her  for  some  time,  and  if ' 

'  Ah,  if/  Laura  interjected,  and  curtseying  to  him 
she  led  the  doctor  to  the  door.  '  Nothing/  she  began, 
'  can  be  worse  than  the  present  state  of  earth-life,  and 
in  all  its  phases;  if  the  human  race  is  to  be  evolved 
into  a  higher  degree  of  perfection,  no  weak  half  meas- 
ures will  avail  to  effect  the  change;  there  must,  on  the 
contrary,  be  a  radical  change  in  hereditary  environment.' 

The  doctor  listened  a  moment  and,  as  if  enchanted 
with  the  impression  she  had  produced,  Laura  went  back 
to  the  writing-table,  and  settling  the  folds  of  her  brown 
silk  widely  over  the  floor,  she  began  to  write: 

'"Ye  gods,  they  fail,  they  falter, 

Thy  hand  hath  struck  them  down. 
Their  woof  the  Parcae  alter, 

Beware  thy  mother's  frown! 
What  such  as  I  in  glory 

Compared  with  such  as  thee? 
Would,  in  the  conflict  gory 

That  I  had  died  for  thee!'" 

At  this  point  the  inspiration  seemed  to  desert  her, 
and  raising  her  pen  from  the  paper,  she  bit  its  end 


462  A    MUMMER'S    WIFE 

thoughtfully,  seeking  for  a  transitional  phrase  whereby 
she  might  be  able  to  allude  to  the  Light-god. 

They  were  in  a  six-shilling-a-week  bedroom  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  Strand.  The  window  looked  on  to 
a  bit  of  red-tiled  roofing,  a  cistern,  and  a  clothes-line  on 
which  a  petticoat  flapped,  and  in  a  small  iron  bedstead3 
facing  the  light,  Kate  lay  delirious,  her  stomach  enor- 
mously distended  by  dropsy.  From  time  to  time  she 
waved  her  arms,  now  wasted  to  mere  bones.  She  had 
been  insensible  for  three  whole  days,  speaking  in  broken 
phrases  of  her  past  life — of  Mrs.  Ede,  the  potteries,  the 
two  little  girls,  Annie  and  Lizzie.  Dick,  she  declared,  had 
been  very  good  to  her.  Ralph,  too,  had  been  kind,  and 
she  was  determined  that  the  two  men  should  not  quarrel 
over  her.  They  must  not  kill  each  other;  she  would  not 
allow  it;  they  should  be  friends.  They  would  all  be 
friends  yet;  that  is  to  say,  if  Mrs.  Ede  would  permit  of 
it;  and  why  should  she  stand  between  people  and  make 
enemies  of  them?  She  fell  back  into  stupor;  and  next 
day  her  ideas  were  still  more  confused.  In  the  belief 
that  it  was  for  the  part  of  the  Baillie  that  Dick  and 
Ralph  were  quarrelling  she  began  to  express  her  regret 
that  there  was  nothing  in  the  piece  for  her.  Nor  were 
memories  of  the  baby  girl  who  had  died  in  Manchester 
lacking.  She  prayed  Ralph  to  believe  that  the  child  was 
not  his  but  Dick's  child.  She  prayed  and  supplicated 
in  Laura's  arms  till  Laura  laid  her  back  on  the  pillow 
exhausted. 

'  Give  me  something  to  drink;  I'm  dying  of  thirst,'  the 
sick  woman  murmured  faintly. 

Laura  started  from  her  reveries,  and  going  over  to  the 
fireplace,  where  the  beef-tea  was  standing,  poured  out 
half  a  cup;  but,  owing  to  great  difficulty  in  breathing,  it 
was  some  time  before  the  patient  could  drink  it. 

After  a  long  silence  Kate  said : 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  463 

'  I've  been  very  ill,  haven't  I  ?  I  think  I  must  be 
dying.' 

'  Death  is  not  death/  Laura  answered,  '  when  we  die 
for  Pan,  the  undying  representative  of  the  universe  cog- 
nizable to  the  senses.' 

Over  Kate's  mind  lay  a  vague  dream,  through  whose 
gloom  two  things  were  just  perceptible — an  idea  of  death 
and  a  desire  to  see  Dick.  But  she  was  almost  too  weak 
to  seek  for  words,  and  it  was  with  great  effort  that  she 
said: 

'  I  don't  remember  who  you  are ;  I  can  think  of  noth- 
ing now,  but  I  should  like  to  see  my  husband  once  more. 
Could  you  fetch  him?  Is  he  here?  ' 

'  You've  not  been  happy  with  him  I  know,  my  sister ; 
but  I  don't  blame  you.  Your  marriage  was  not  a  psy- 
chological union ;  and  when  marriage  isn't  that,  woman 
cannot  set  her  foot  on  the  lowest  temple  of  Eros.' 

'  I'm  too  ill  to  talk  with  you,'  Kate  replied,  '  but  I 
loved  my  husband  well,  too  well.  I  keep  all  my  little 
remembrances  of  him  in  that  box;  they  aren't  much — 
not  much — but  I  should  like  him  to  have  them  when  I'm 
gone,  so  that  he  may  know  that  I  loved  him  to  the  last. 
Perhaps  then  he  may  forgive  me.  Will  you  let  me  see 
them  ?  ' 

She  looked  at  the  packet  of  letters,  kissed  the  crum- 
pled calico  rose,  the  button  she  had  pulled  off  his  coat 
in  a  drunken  fit  and  preserved  for  love,  and  she  even 
slipped  on  her  wrist  the  last  few  pearls  that  remained 
of  the  chaplet  she  wore  when  they  played  at  sweethearts 
in  the  Lovers'  Knot.  But  after  the  love-tokens  had  been 
put  back  in  the  box,  and  Kate  again  asked  Mrs.  For- 
est to  bring  Dick  to  her,  she  began  to  ramble  in  her 
speech,  and  to  fancy  herself  in  Hanley.  The  most  di- 
verse scenes  were  heaped  together  in  the  complex  con- 
fusion of  Kate's  nightmare;  the  most  opposed  ideas  were 


464  A   MUMMER'S    WIFE 

intermingled.  At  one  moment  she  told  the  little  girls, 
Annie  and  Lizzie,  of  the  immorality  of  the  conversations 
in  the  dressing-rooms  of  theatres ;  at  another  she  stopped 
the  rehearsal  of  an  opera  bouffe  to  preach  to  the  mum- 
mers— in  phrases  that  were  remembrances  of  the  extem- 
poraneous prayers  in  the  Wesleyan  Church — of  the  ad- 
vantages of  an  earnest,  working  religious  life.  It  was 
like  a  costume  ball,  where  chastity  grinned  from  behind  a 
mask  that  vice  was  looking  for,  while  vice  hid  his  naked- 
ness in  some  of  the  robes  that  chastity  had  let  fall. 
Thus  up  and  down,  like  dice  thrown  by  demon  players, 
were  rattled  the  two  lives,  the  double  life  that  this  weak 
woman  had  lived,  and  a  point  was  reached  where  the  two 
became  one,  when  she  began  to  sing  her  famous  song: 

'  Look  at  me  here,  look  at  me  there,' 

alternately  with  the  Wesleyan  hymns.  Sometimes  in  her 
delirium  she  even  fitted  the  words  of  one  on  to  the  tune 
of  the  other. 

Still,  Laura  took  no  notice,  and  her  pen  continued  to 
scratch,  scratch,  till  it  occurred  to  her  that  although 
Dick's  marriage  had  not  been  a  psychological  one,  it 
might  be  as  well  that  he  should  see  his  wife  before  she 
died;  and  having  come  to  this  conclusion  suddenly,  she 
put  on  her  bonnet  and  left  the  house. 

The  landlady  brought  in  the  lamp,  placing  it  on  the 
table,  out  of  sight  of  the  dying  woman's  eyes. 

A  dreadful  paleness  had  changed  even  the  yellow  of 
her  face  to  an  ashen  tint;  her  lips  had  disappeared, 
her  eyes  were  dilated,  and  she  tried  to  raise  herself  up 
in  bed.  Her  withered  arms  were  waved  to  and  fro,  and 
in  the  red  gloom  shed  from  the  ill-smelling  paraffin  lamp 
the  large,  dimly  seen  folds  of  the  bed-clothes  were  tossed 
to  and  fro  by  the  convulsions  that  agitated  the  whole 


A   MUMMER'S   WIFE  465 

body.  Another  hour  passed  away,  marked  by  the  cavern- 
ous breathing  of  the  woman  as  she  crept  to  the  edge  of 
death.  At  last  there  came  a  sigh,  deeper  and  more  pro- 
longed ;  and  with  it  she  died. 

Soon  after,  before  the  corpse  had  grown  cold,  heavy 
steps  were  heard  on  the  staircase,  and  Dick  and  Laura 
entered,  one  with  a  quantity  of  cockatoo-like  flutterings, 
the  other  steadily,  like  a  big  and  ponderous  animal.  At 
a  glance  they  saw  that  all  was  over,  and  in  silence  they 
sat  down,  their  hands  resting  on  the  table.  The  man 
spoke  hesitatingly  in  awkward  phrases  of  a  happy  release; 
the  woman  listened  with  a  calm  serenity  that  caused  Dick 
to  wonder.  She  would  have  liked  to  have  said  something 
concerning  psychological  marriages,  but  the  appearance 
of  the  huge  body  beneath  the  bed-clothes  restrained  her : 
he  wished  to  say  something  nice  and  kind,  but  Laura's 
presence  put  everything  out  of  his  head,  and  so  his 
ideas  became  more  than  ever  broken  and  disjointed,  his 
thoughts  wandered,  until  at  last,  lifting  his  eyes  from 
the  manuscript  on  the  table,  he  said: 

'  Have  you  finished  the  second  act,  dear  ?  ' 

THE   END 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 

COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


NovlS 


Book  Slip-10w-5,'58(372.7s4)42SO 


l 


UCLA-Colleg«  Library 

PR  5042  M91 1917 


L  005  730  959  3 


College 
Library 


PR 
50^2 
M91 
1917 


AL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


001  176  284    6 


